UC Considers New List of J-Term Classes

What do metalsmithing, manners, and Microsoft Excel have in common?

If Jay M. Harris and the Undergraduate Council’s ideas come to fruition, you could spend your first January term, or “J-term,” taking a three-week course in such subjects.

For 45 minutes at last night’s Undergraduate Council (UC) meeting, Harris, the chair of the Gen Ed Committee, and Council members traded opinions about a J-term, the optional winter term in January that will be implemented along with the new calendar in 2009-2010.

Debate focused on the purpose of a J-term, its logistics, and possible classes.

Harris, a Jewish studies professor, emphasized that unlike existing winter terms at MIT, Dartmouth, and Oberlin, the “J-term will be completely and totally optional—if students want to stay home for five weeks and do nothing, that’s a great thing.”

Potential offerings Harris suggested included the practical—classes on PowerPoint; the less conventional—such as metalsmithing; and the academic—introductory Japanese or English seminars.

“There needs to be a wide range of things, from demanding to less demanding,” Harris said.

The question of whether to allow internship recruiting during J-term was raised, with opponents calling for a vacation free from the stress of classes and competing for jobs, and supporters citing an increased advantage of allowing Harvard students to have more time with recruiters.

Harris is planning calendar reform with Donald H. Pfister, an organismic and evolutionary biology professor who is also chairing the Ad Board Review Committee. Although a feasibility study on calendar reform won’t come out until at least September, Harris stressed the continued importance of student input in the process.

The methods for such input remain nebulous at the moment, but Harris emphasized its necessity.

“University administrators can think all they want about J-terms, but if it isn’t what students want, and if it isn’t what students need, it’s all a waste of time,” Harris said.

—Staff writer Chelsea L. Shover can be reached at clshover@fas.harvard.edu.