Kirby Pushes Preregistration For Courses

Students crowded classrooms last week attempting to fill their empty study cards, but the new dean of the Faculty is determined to see that in the future students start choosing their classes well before professors approach their lecterns.

Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby asked the Office of Undergraduate Education this summer to develop plans for “early course selection,” a system of preregistration that would retain shopping period yet require students to fill out their study cards the semester before.

And leading faculty members predict that the system will appear in some form.

Jeffrey Wolcowitz, associate dean of undergraduate education, said he hopes to see this system implemented for classes starting in February 2004.

While the details of the proposal have yet to be drafted, Kirby’s commitment to the underlying concept remains strong.

“The subject [of preregistration] has come up before, but Professor Kirby is now dean of the Faculty and he will take it on seriously,” said Director of the Core Program Susan W. Lewis.

Lewis said that she has discussed the issue extensively with Kirby in the past and is not surprised that he “brought it up right away” after his appointment as dean last spring.

Last May, Kirby said he wanted to look into what preregistration would entail and, after discussing the plan with Faculty leaders, his commitment has not waned.

“It would permit better planning for larger classes, and more complete training for graduate teaching fellows, which should have a positive impact on sections,” he said in an e-mail yesterday.

Kirby also cited better advising opportunities for undergraduates and schedule planning for graduate students as advantages.

Having presented the idea to department chairs and members of Faculty Council this month, Kirby said he is now looking forward to discussing the issue with students.

But administrators said the role students and other faculty will play the final decision is unclear.

“I’m not certain whether we would need a formal [Faculty] vote before implementing such a system, but I do think the Faculty will need to have the opportunity to discuss a plan before implementation,” Wolcowitz wrote in an e-mail.

A Groundswell of Support

Kirby is not alone in campaigning for preregistration.

In meetings of the Faculty Council, a group that discusses issues before they go before the entire Faculty, many professors said they were overwhelmingly behind it.

“Everybody thinks that it is a great idea,” said Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies Jay M. Harris. “The current system is a mess for graduate students and thus ultimately undergraduates.”

Harris said that most professors have faced difficulties in hiring the correct number of teaching fellows and that having enrollment figures ahead of time would be a great help.

The Core office does currently provide those who teach in the Core with predicted enrollment statistics, which Lewis said are consistently accurate within one or two sections.

When the topic of preregistration has come up in the past, which according to Lewis occurs once every few years, it has often come from disgruntled graduate students.

Lisa L. Laskin, former president of the Graduate Student Council, said she often heard complaints from graduate students not knowing whether they would have a job until days before classes began.

The topic of preregistration was discussed informally at a joint meeting of the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) and Committee on Graduate Education last year, but the issue was never pursued.

Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Peter T. Ellison said that preregistration has been an issue as long as he can remember and that he doesn’t think this heightened attention was caused by any “particular precipitating event.”

“It’s been a perennial topic of discussion from time immemorial,” he said.

But this time, the Faculty’s leader has assumed control, and faculty members are eager to add their support.

“Universities and colleges all over the country do this. It can be done...we are not pioneers” Harris said.

Proceeding Cautiously

Harris said that while many faculty members supported the idea, they were weary of the logistical issues involved.

“This could turn into a paperwork nightmare and not accomplish anything,” he said.

Rohit Chopra ’04, who served last year as a student member of CUE, said he predicts that as long as students add and drop classes, enrollment figures will remain unpredictable.

“I don’t think that preregistration is going to produce any numbers that are helpful. Harvard students are unafraid of switching courses, or even concentrations,” he said.

Chopra said he was also concerned that the system would prevent the generation of new courses, since deadlines for finalizing the course catalog would have to be pushed up.

Lewis agreed that finalizing the course catalog months in advance—it is usually not ready until June, while preregistration for fall classes were occur before summer break—would be a significant concern.

“We have a catalog that changes more than at most other places and one question that needs to be resolved is how to make enough information available in a timely way,” she said.

And while Kirby said shopping period will remain, when and how course lotteries would be run has yet to be determined.

“We should think carefully about whether we can make the lottery situation better by holding them earlier,” Wolcowitz said.

Lewis said she understood that students who had preregistered for a class would be given preference in the lottery.

“The presumption is that if you preregister you would have priority if there was any constraint,” she said.

Lewis said other issues that need to be addressed are capping the number of classes for which students could register and whether the system would apply to incoming first-years.

And more concerns will likely arise as discussion of the proposal continues and includes undergraduates.

“Students have more information on the likelihood that it would work than we do,” Lewis said.

And the students on CUE will have a chance to discuss the issue at its first meeting on Oct. 16.

But Wolcowitz said students should not be overly concerned with the proposed change.

“I think it is important that we design a strategy that does not adversely affect undergraduates,” he said. “We will maintain as much of the flexibility that students currently have, only deviating from this when we believe we can actually improve things.”

—Staff writer Jessica E. Vascellaro can be reached at vascell@fas.harvard.edu.