Profit-Making Venture, Academic Program or Both?

When Professor Asa Gray announced more than 100 years ago that he would offer a course in botany during the summer vacation, the Harvard Summer School was created. Its initial mandate was strictly the education of teachers.

Over the next 70 years, the Summer School expanded its curriculum beyond the originally narrow focus and rapidly increased its enrollment.

Today Harvard Summer School is a multimillion dollar operation featuring nine different programs and attracting students from all over the globe.

In the course of its development, the school has emerged as a money-maker for its parent Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), annually bringing in more than $2 million.

But at a faculty meeting last fall, some professors questioned the propriety of what they perceive as a for-profit summer school. At the request of the Faculty Council, the steering committee of the Faculty, the Summer School administration this spring produced a comprehensive report describing the "mission" of the Harvard Summer School.

Some observers from within FAS said that the Summer School's financial standing, combined with its steadily increasing enrollments made the time ripe for an intensive self-evaluation on the part of the program. They also predicted serious discussion in the Faculty Council of the Summer School's role within the University.

But the report produced by Director of the Summer School Peter S. Buck instead proved to be little more than a progress report on the school's development and a primer on its history and structure.

The report prompted next to no Faculty discussion, and several Faculty Council members now say they do not even remember the meeting during which the Summer School was discussed.

Most professors say they see no need to overhaul the Summer School, saying it can operate as a money maker while maintaining its integrity as a serious academic program.

"The Summer School is primarily, if not exclusively, an academic institution," says Dean of Continuing Education Michael Shinagel, who oversees the Summer School. "If we are efficient and successful and we make money, that is fine. We are there to run an economically viable, cost-efficient institution."

The Summer School each year gives about $750,000 in direct revenues to the FAS, as well as paying $1.5 million in rent for classrooms and dormitories and $500,000 in salaries to Harvard faculty.

However, while faculty members and administrators say they are comfortable with the Summer School's financial standing, they say making money should not be the program's first priority.

In Buck's report to the Faculty Council, he listed the summer program's priorities as follows: first, to make Harvard's resources available to a broader range of people; second, to give financial assistance for minorities, economically underprivileged people, women interested in science and Boston secondary school teachers; and third, to make money.

While Faculty Council members say that the report met no opposition in the meeting when it was discussed, many professors say some of their colleagues believe the Summer School places too much emphasis on moneymaking. Specifically, they point to the full Faculty discussion last fall when the school's role was taken up.

"The tenor of the meeting was that somehow Harvard was selling itself short, that the only purpose of this was to make money, that it was beneath Harvard to do this sort of thing," said Mckay Professor of Applied Mathematics Roger W. Brockett.

But Brockett and other faculty members downplay the level of dissatisfaction with the school, saying it is restricted to only a handful of professors.

"[The Summer School] has been around a long time. People recognize that, and it is generally favorably regarded," says Brendan A. Maher, dean of the Graduate School of Arts Sciences.

"The Summer School courses are regarded by the faculty as of the same caliber [as courses during the academic year]," Maher adds, refering to another commonly heard criticism of the Summer School--that its course offerings are less than rigorous.

Buck's report maintains that Summer School courses "are chosen with two criteria in mind: 'Do they satisfy Harvard's academic standards?' [and] `Do they meet demonstrable student interest?'"

More than the question of academic standards, it is the second point--meeting demonstrable student interest--that is a sticking point for some professors.

In defending the practice of closing under-enrolled courses, administrators note that only 10 percent of the Summer School's students are Harvard undergraduates. Courses are offered not to fill requirements, they say, but because students are interested in them.

Therefore, administrators say, if a sufficient number of students do not show interest in a course, it would use a disproportionate amount of FAS financial support to continue it.

"In the old days this used to be the third semester of Harvard College but now it's more like the third semester of the Extension School," Buck says, refering to the part of the University which offers night courses to area residents.

Buck adds that when Harvard undergraduates had to pay to take a fifth or sixth course, many students took classes for degree during the summer. During that time courses remained in the curriculum regardless of student interest.

When undergraduate attendance at the Summer School dropped in the 1970s, the program began a policy of open admissions. Anyone who applies--and who can pay the $975 fee for each course--may attend summer classes.

"What is interesting about this operation is that we take anyone who walks in and that we are in the business of showing that people who self-select to come here do very well in courses that are not different in their level of rigor from term-time courses," Buck says.

Each fall, Buck consults with the department chairs to plan summer courses for their disciplines. Because the courses can be taken for degree credit, they must be approved by the department heads and the Faculty Council. The official expectation is that the classes will be as difficult as Harvard's term-time offerings.

While many on the faculty say they are not certain that the Summer School courses are on par with term-time offerings, supporters of the Summer School say the radically different structure of the summer program makes comparison difficult.

"The Summer School is somewhat different. Some course are not so strenuous, but you can say the same thing about Harvard College," Shinagel says. "During the year you are taking four or five courses, so the summer--where students only take one or two courses--is not intensive."

And Maher, who has taught summer school courses, says "It may well be that if you looked at the mean grades, I had fewer A's during the summer than in the year. But that itself is evidence that the quality [of the course] was the same."

And George W. Goethals, senior lecturer on psychology, says, "The difference is that there is a far wider spread of talent. I've had classes at Summer School that are better than classes at any other part of Harvard."

"The stereotype that it is second-rate is something that I haven't experienced," Goethals adds.

The one complaint that professors teaching in the Summer School typically express about the courses is their brevity--summer session is slightly more than half a regular semester.

"Some of the classes are actually harder. It is difficult taking in the information in the lesser time," says Assistant Professor of Anthropology Terrence W. Deacon, who teaches a summer version of his popular Core course "Human Behavioral Biology."

"It is a different kind of atmosphere. In general, probably a little less of the information is communicated," Deacon says.