Groovy Train

The Class of '94 thought it was their time. The year of n+1 suites, the year of legal imbibing, the year of first priority admittance into the cooler Core classes, Not.

Last week, scores of seniors became Rebels Without a Core when their comfortable worlds were rocked by lottery. Among the unfortunates pushed out of Foreign Cultures 62, "Chinese Family, Marriage, and Kinship: A Century of Change" were many seniors who were attempting to fulfill Core requirements.

We consulted a master--the master--for a little wisdom that would begin to explain the injustice of it all. His name is Confucius.

While some seniors could console themselves with admittance to the waiting list, Andrew D. Nguyen didn't even make that cut. The first step was denial.

"First of all, I thought it was a mistake," he says. "I think I stood there for half an hour, going through the list backwards and forwards."

And when reality finally set in, Nguyen felt wronged:

"You feel like you pay your dues as an underclassman," he explains. "[The lottery] kind of screws with your life."

'The Master is not on his side.' The Analects, VII. 15

In fact, some seniors who were excluded--at least initially--not only needed "Family" for the Core, but also for concentration credit. For East Asian Studies or Social Anthropology concentrators, Nguyen says, the lottery was "a double kick in the butt."

'Twice is quite enough.' V. 21

Allison Hill says that she could see the value of including sophomores and juniors in order to get a wider cross-section of students.

('...they are unlikely to be as eager to learn as I am.' V. 28).

She, too, was lotteried out of FC 62, and is now taking FC 52, "Society, Religion, and Politics in Iran," instead.

When it was time to fill out forms to enter the FC 62 lottery, Hill overheard juniors and sophomores filling out forms who seemed to have no intention of taking the course this year, she says, but were merely filling out forms to insure themselves a place in the course the next time it was offered.

'Raise the crooked and set them over the straight andthe common people will not look up to you.'II. 19

Laura Marx is yet another senior who foundherself shut out of her Core-of-choice. "When Iwas lotteried out I was very upset. I was livid."

Tzu-lu said, 'I should like to hear what youhave set your heart on.' VI. 26

"I'd been planning on taking it for threeyears. I felt like by not taking this course, Iwasn't going to graduate," Marx explains. TheMaster said, 'Even with a man who urges himself onin his studies as though he was losing ground, myfear is still that he may not make it intime.' VIII. 17

Marx was there when the class list was postedand things got ugly in the lecture hall. "Therewas a mob of thirty enraged seniors standingaround the stage," all of them trying to statetheir case to the head TF.

The Master said, 'To attack a task from thewrong end can do nothing but harm.' II. 16

Marx was one of the lucky ones. She, along withsome other seniors, eventually got into the courseafter she stated her case in a letter to the headTF. But for those seniors who are too lazy towrite, there's another way:

The Master said, 'I have never deniedinstruction to anyone who, of his own accord, hasgiven me so much as a bundle of dried meat as apresent.' VII. 7

Dried meat? Whatever..