Core Lotteries Send Students Scrambling

There were too many students who found that perfect Core this shopping period.

A high number of students in a few classes forced four courses to resort to a lottery selection, sending hundreds of students into an eleventh-hour scramble to find a fourth class.

Due to limited seating and the available pool of qualified teaching fellows, the lotteried classes in the Core used a standard selection procedure.

Privileges were given to students who had not passed the particular Core requirement, upperclass students and those who needed the course for a concentration requirement. Also favorably considered were transfer students and those not taking the class pass/fail.

Literature and Arts A-18, "Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood"; Science B-29, "Human Behavioral Biology"; Foreign Cultures 62, "Chinese Marriage, Family and Kinship" and Literature and Arts B-51, "First Nights" were lotteried.

Students recounted horror stories of having to pick courses almost at random shortly before yesterday's deadline for study cards.

"I was forced to take an upper-level class that I hadn't even shopped," said Adriana Pinon '98, who found out she didn't make the cut for B-29 Monday night. "I wish they would tell us earlier. Harvard has such a wealth of great classes, and they end up being chosen haphazardly."

First-years, with the lowest priority in the lottery, especially found themselves without a fourth course after being cut out from prospective Cores.

"I ended up with 32 minutes to find a course before I had to get my study card signed," said one first-year who was lotteried out of two classes and asked not to be identified. "I just picked one that I knew had not sectioned yet."

Adding to the frustration, Professor of German Maria M. Tatar's Fairy Tales and Fairbank Professor of Chinese Society James L. Watson's Chinese Family are expected not to be offered next year.

Science B-29 proved to be the source of the most disappointment and confusion.

Because of the newly formed Mind, Brain and Behavior (MBB) track--which has B-29 as a requirement--attendance for the class increased by 50 percent over last year, to about 580. The class is limited to an enrollment of 500.

However, since students who signed up for B-29 to meet a Core requirement have a higher priority than those seeking to satisfy a concentration requirement, many MBB concentrators who had already taken a Science B class found themselves shut out.

"I think they should be more considerate to those of us who need [B-29] for our concentration," said MBB concentrator Aerlyn Dawn '98. "Its frustrating that people are getting in over us who are taking it because they think it's a gut and won't even show up to lectures."

Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology Irven DeVore, who teaches Science B-29, said only that the ment of noted scholar and author Cornel West '74 to a position in the Department of Afro-American Studies.

In addition to adding his tremendous scholarship to Harvard, the appointment of Wilson is a "wonderful step" toward making Harvard's faculty more diverse, Carnesale said in an interview yesterday.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., the W.E.B. DuBois professor of the humanities and chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies, said in a Kennedy School press release that Wilson's appointment positions Harvard to assume a national leadership role in shaping public policy decisions regarding race and class.

"For Afro-American Studies, Wilson will be the pivotal person in our social sciences component, complementing the considerable strength we have in cultural studies," Gates said. "This is a great day for Harvard, and a great day for Afro-American Studies!"

Wilson said he plans to continue his work on issues of urban inequality, race and class, in addition to setting up research sites in Boston similar to ones he has in Chicago.

Also, Wilson said he hopes to develop a course in cross-cultural studies of urban inequality, focusing on differences between how the United States and Europe deal with urban problems.

Wilson received national attention and acclaim for his groundbreaking work in The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, The Underclass, and Public Policy, named as one of the 16 best books published in 1987, by The New York Times Book Review, according to the press release.

Wilson is the former chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago and the past president of both the American Sociological Association and the Consortium of Social Science Associations.

He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. He has also been awarded 22 honorary doctorates.

According to Carnesale, the addition of Wilson further reinforces Harvard's standing as the nation's leading institution for sociology and Afro-American Studies.

"We've been trying to get Wilson to come to Harvard for a long time. The effort started long before I was dean [of the Kennedy School]," Carnesale said.

"He's at a stage in his life when he'd like to make a shift to policy, and the Kennedy School and Harvard is the best place to do that.," Carnesale added

In addition to adding his tremendous scholarship to Harvard, the appointment of Wilson is a "wonderful step" toward making Harvard's faculty more diverse, Carnesale said in an interview yesterday.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., the W.E.B. DuBois professor of the humanities and chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies, said in a Kennedy School press release that Wilson's appointment positions Harvard to assume a national leadership role in shaping public policy decisions regarding race and class.

"For Afro-American Studies, Wilson will be the pivotal person in our social sciences component, complementing the considerable strength we have in cultural studies," Gates said. "This is a great day for Harvard, and a great day for Afro-American Studies!"

Wilson said he plans to continue his work on issues of urban inequality, race and class, in addition to setting up research sites in Boston similar to ones he has in Chicago.

Also, Wilson said he hopes to develop a course in cross-cultural studies of urban inequality, focusing on differences between how the United States and Europe deal with urban problems.

Wilson received national attention and acclaim for his groundbreaking work in The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, The Underclass, and Public Policy, named as one of the 16 best books published in 1987, by The New York Times Book Review, according to the press release.

Wilson is the former chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago and the past president of both the American Sociological Association and the Consortium of Social Science Associations.

He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sciences. He has also been awarded 22 honorary doctorates.

According to Carnesale, the addition of Wilson further reinforces Harvard's standing as the nation's leading institution for sociology and Afro-American Studies.

"We've been trying to get Wilson to come to Harvard for a long time. The effort started long before I was dean [of the Kennedy School]," Carnesale said.

"He's at a stage in his life when he'd like to make a shift to policy, and the Kennedy School and Harvard is the best place to do that.," Carnesale added