A Cruel Omission

ROGER MARIS has an asterisk next to his name in the baseball record book because the commissioner of the game changed the schedule.

Harvard students will not get asterisks on their transcripts this year, even though the registrar changed our schedule.

This fall, reading period was four days--or 28.5 percent--shorter than usual. When grade reports are sent out today, no note will be made of this condensed preparation time. Harvard naively pretends that the length of reading period is just not that important. Unfortunately, four days do make a difference: every day taken away means less time spent on important papers, fewer pages read, and less material learned.

Cutting four days off reading period is simply cruel. It exacts a brutal toll from students in repeated all-nighters and massive doses of anxiety. The change was particularly painful to those who participate extensively in extracurricular activities, but all of us, both students and professors, have come to depend on the two-week reading period. It has become an institution around which people at Harvard plan their lives.

Of course, ten days is a lot of time. But in addition to preparing for finals during reading period, add two 10- to 15-page papers. Then add one or two supplementary reading assignments of 300 pages. Ten days suddenly is not so much time. Now, how about an asterisk for the transcript?

True, no other school has as long a reading period as Harvard. But most other schools have winter vacations three, four, even five weeks long. And their finals are before vacation. There's a tradeoff involved. We sacrifice a long, tension-free vacation. In exchange, we are supposed to receive a two-week reading period. Having little choice in the matter, we kept our end of the bargain. But the university cheated, stealthily stealing four days which should have been ours. It's hardly worth having finals after vacation for just a week and a half of extra work time.

Those all too official envelopes containing fall semester grades will arrive within the next few days. As far as the registrar is concerned, it's business as usual. With typical senstivity, the faceless bureaucracy in Holyoke Center will ignore the effect of a shortened reading period on students' grades--not to mention how much they learn or their general quality of life.

The length of fall reading period should not be a question of how the calendar happens to fall. It ought to have a set minimum length--14 days--and should not be arbitrarily sliced in the interest of expedient scheduling. The calendar must be worked around reading period and not vice-versa.

The damage has already been done this fall. Roger Maris would have been more than willing to give up his asterisk for the sake of Harvard students anytime. Better yet, may the registrar--and the students--of this college never permit valuable January days to vanish in the future.