Jay On J

The prevailing fog that has occluded the administration’s plans for J-term lifted momentarily this past weekend, but the forecast looks bleak nonetheless. At a question-and-answer session for junior parents this past Friday, Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris informed parents that housing at the College during January of next year—which will no longer host reading period or exams—might only be granted to international students, athletes, and other special-interest groups. This sudden revelation is emblematic of the disturbing mixed signals that the student body is now receiving about J-term plans.

As late as April of last year, Harris engaged in dialogue with the Undergraduate Council to brainstorm a host of options for J-term, such as offering short classes on everything from PowerPoint to metalworking. This academic year, however, we have heard little or no concrete details from the College about its vision for the new term. Even a basic outline for the term or a window into its planning process would suffice, but, with next January looming closer, Harris’s comments are the first suggestion of a new and very different plan in the works.

The College is either being too obscure about J-term or it has clearly not planned well enough for the changing calendar. As we approach the end of this school year—with an administration that recently has tended toward pushing plans off—it is far too late to not have a clear conception of what January will be. The schedule change has been under consideration for years, and the idea that the College is still uncertain about this essential component is troubling. If budget anxiety is to blame for the prolonged uncertainty, then the administration ought to be transparent about that. And, if truly no concrete decisions have been made, then it must make finalizing this aspect of the calendar a priority.

Undergraduates had high expectations for the new January term. We anticipated the possibility of new and interesting classes, college-backed internships, and short-term study-abroad programs, all offered with the freedom for students to create their own January experience. It is lamentable that the College is considering not only dropping these possible opportunities, but also refusing the majority of students to even live on campus during the term. Without living accommodations, students will even be denied the liberty to participate in self-directed J-term activities on campus, whether that is research, an internship, or an extracurricular. January has also been an incredibly important time for senior-thesis writing—which could be deeply difficult to accomplish at home. Furthermore, it is shortsighted to believe that only specific groups of students will be excessively inconvenienced by a forced eviction. In short, J-term was not meant to be a College-wide shutdown.

If the administration intends to make drastic changes on J-term plans going forward, it needs to solicit input from students when considering possible decisions. The recent near-silence about calendar change plans does not bode well for university-student relations.

Presumably the slashing of J-term ambitions has resulted from the financial difficulty in which Harvard has suddenly found itself. However, if economic concerns are truly so dire as to threaten even the freedom to remain in the dorms next January, Harvard should instead consider cost-saving alternatives like closing the dining halls during this month or heating the Houses on a per-room basis. Given financial constraints, we understand if the College cannot fulfill student expectations next year of a J-term complete with limitless possibilities. But, by neither allowing students to remain on campus nor facilitating any educational experiences during that month, the university will have signaled a sad surrender in its mission, and in doing so it will deal a significant blow to the anticipated benefits of our calendar shift.