Preserve Precious Shopping Period

There are many things about Harvard that are particular to the school: a 10-day reading period, concentrations, a lying statue and shopping period.

Shopping period, one of the great benefits of the Harvard schedule, is now up for discussion by the Faculty Council. While the Council is far from any decisions, many members have suggested that Harvard move toward a pre-registration program where students would have to select their classes prior to each semester.

We understand the difficulties inherent in the shopping period. It is difficult for professors to delve into their material when perhaps the majority of students in attendance one day will not be in the next. It is hard to plan a class when you do not know if you will be lecturing to 15 or 50. And it makes it hard to hire teaching fellows when you must wait until the enrollment figures are in.

But for all these drawbacks, the flexibility which shopping period provides students makes it a major asset. In the first week of the semester, many students shop 10 classes or more. They can evaluate the professors and the syllabus, and judge whether each class appeals to them.

If shopping period were eliminated, Harvard students would judge their classes based upon the three-sentence blurb in the courses of instruction, CUE guide ratings and the anecdotal evidence of their friends. And this means that in the first week of the semester far more students would find that they are uninterested in the subject matter than now, when students can shop around to decide on their favorite classes.

Moreover, students would probably flock to classes based upon low difficulty ratings. Now, students may search for the hidden "guts" with in their CUE guides, but shopping period allows them to wade into more challenging classes, to see for example, if the stimulating lectures of Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr. '53 really do make up for (reputed) curving around his middle initial.

But in the absence of shopping period, students will be averse to registering for difficult classes when they are not certain whether they will have other redeeming qualities.

All of the inconveniences of shopping period are just that, inconveniences. Shopping period may slow the pace of the earliest lectures, but that really depends upon the professor. Many simply plow ahead, knowing that most of the students who ultimately enroll are present in the class, and those who are shopping around will simply have to catch up later.

And while the numbers in attendance may fluctuate, this is again a minor problem. Except for the rare cases where a lecture class for 40 finds itself a seminar of 15, there is not a substantial difference in the content of lectures for a class that has 75 students or 150.

And while the last problem, that of hiring TFs, may make for a few days of scrambling for extra teaching fellows, most professors have a pretty good idea of the number of students who will attend and can plan accordingly. In fact, many professors, such as Marjorie Garber, use shopping period to advertise and otherwise draw students into classes that might be missed in the course catalog. While it may be hard on many others, it is still a fair price to pay for shopping period.

Harvard's schedule is not perfect. The Faculty has been slow to act on student complaints about beginning and ending so late, and taking first semester finals after the new year. But shopping period is a part of Harvard's schedule that students are loath to change. It allows them to choose the classes that are best for them and consequently provides professors with more ready and enthusiastic students.

These benefits to the Harvard community greatly outweigh the inconveniences of shopping period.