Class Overlapping Toughened

The Faculty Council voted Wednesday to toughen up restrictions on students taking classes whose schedules overlap.

The measure, effective next fall, tightens up the present policy with three new measures. The new measures may have a profound effect on classes such as Social Analysis 10--Principles of Economics, popularly known as Ec 10.

"We want to narrow the pool [of students taking overlapping classes] to basically serious [cases]," said one University Hall insider.

Under the new policy, the Administrative Board--the body that grants these exceptions--will ordinarily allow seniors who must take the two conflicting courses in order to graduate to take the classes.

The new measure also alters a requirement that professors must agree to provide "compensatory instruction" for the time lost. Compensatory instruction requires "direct and personal contact" between the student and the course's instructor for a period of time equivalent to the teaching time lost.

Under the new guidelines, teaching fellows may no longer provide the compensatory instruction but learning through video and audio tapes will be permitted.

There is an advantage to broadening the present policy to include video and audio tapes, said University insiders. In the case of a costly scientific experiment, taping would be more efficient and effective than duplication.

One Harvard administrator, however, cautioned students against abusing the new measures. "We are not running a T.V. university. The Faculty Council adopted the [more restrictive] policy because we feel that it's important for students to be in a lecture.

Cases that fail to meet the criteria will continue to be determined individually, said the Harvard administrator.

Some Ec 10 teaching fellows said yesterday they were disappointed by the new measures. The more stringent guidelines may affect enrollment, they said.

Said Assistant Professor of Economics Douglas W. Elmendorf of the new restrictions, "I hope it will not discourage students from taking Ec 10, but it possibly will do that." Presently, 30 students enrolled in Ec 10 are taking other courses that meet at the same time.

According to Elmendorf, "the current policy was working fine." He said that students have no problems under the present policy, whereby students can attend sections for personal instruction and watch lectures on videotape.