Commit to the Extension School

Implicit in the notion of membership in an institution is full access to its resources. By this measure, degree candidates at the Harvard Extension School have been relegated to second class status within the University.

The Extension School is essentially a continuing education program for about 14,000 area adults, most of whom hold full-time jobs while attending classes at Harvard in the afternoon and evening. For about 600 select students, however, the School offers Bachelor of Liberal Arts degrees, comparable to the Bachelor of Arts degree offered by the College.

Unlike the other schools at Harvard, however, undergraduate degree candidates at the Extension School have little or no access to important resources within the Harvard community, such as the Office of Career Services and the computer facilities at the Science Center. Degree candidates are ineligible to live in Harvard-affiliated housing, and access to the libraries of the professional schools is severely restricted.

Degree candidates are not even listed in the Harvard University Directory of Students, which ostensibly provides "the names of students registered in all departments of the University." Transients such as Special Students. Visiting Undergraduates and Traveling Scholars are listed. While a significant number of the University's population are ignored. Since there is no published directory of Extension School students, there is no meaningful way for degree candidates to know who constitutes their ranks.

To be sure, the Extension School does boast certain advantages over the College for degree candidates. The school's primary attraction lies in its extraordinary Harvard faculty and the students' ability to cultivate faculty relationships in the relatively small classes for which the school is noted. The reasonable tuition is also a factor in attracting candidates.

But in an increasingly complex world, these are no longer the only criteria by which to judge the quality of an education. During the past 20 years, universities have been charged with expanding their missions, redefining their roles on both the local and the national scale and expanding the content of the services they provide to their students.

By denying Extension School undergraduates access to the Office of Career Services and by providing no comparable service through the Extension School, the University is failing to provide these students with important resources they need to thrive, especially for those students who plan to pursue scholarly careers.

While the Radcliffe Office of Career Services is open to Extension School students--it is open to the public at large--it does not provide access to the Harvard alumni network, nor does it administer University-sponsored fellowships that fall under the province of the Office of Career Services. (The Extension School, to its credit, does administer Fulbright Fellowships, but offers no help with other fellowships, University-sponsored and otherwise, many of which require University endorsement.)

The explanation offered by the Extension School for its failure to provide this service is not a credible one. Extension School officials say they have tried to get OCS to open its doors to students at the school. OCS, they claim, is not interested.

Martha P. Leape, director of the Office Of Career Services, disputes this charge. "The Office of Career Services is receptive to providing service to eligible Extension School students. [Dean of the Extension School Michael Shinagel] and the Visiting Committee are not willing to provide the additional funding required for this service."

The modest tuition charged to Extension School students is not an overwhelmingly persuasive explanation for such a minimalist ethos. In any case, both at the College and at the Extension School, the cost of tuition does not reflect the true cost of an undergraduate education.

Clearly, the Extension School is failing to evolve to meet the increasingly sophisticated material needs of its students. The University administration--and in particular the unresponsive Extension School administration--need to look closely at the Extension School program. In failing to meet the needs of its students, the University is failing itself and the community at large.