Word: tfs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...semester, certain subject areas can mushroom in popularity after a watershed event. If students had preregistered for classes last year before Sept. 11, those tentative enrolment numbers would have drastically underestimated the demand for classes relating to the Middle East or terrorism. If there are no last-minute TFs to accommodate the extra students, the easiest thing for the professor to do would be to lottery the course...
...recognise that there are problems with the current system. Professors often have difficulty in finding TFs at the last moment and those that are found are often unprepared and overworked. But the quality of section leaders can be improved in many other ways, and we are willing to suffer through slightly worse sections if that means being taught by more vibrant and engaging faculty. After all, it is Harvard’s great professors that drew us here to study...
Despite shopping period’s benefits, there are clearly many problems with the current system. When a class is larger than expected, professors often waste time finding a larger classroom and hastily selecting extra, less qualified TFs. In some circumstances, when a course’s enrollment exceeds its projected size, the professor lotteries that course, to the detriment of students. The Staff completely ignores these problems...
...online before the deadline for preregistration. In this way, students would be provided ahead of time much of the knowledge usually only available during shopping period, and their choices would be more accurate, allowing the registrar to select more appropriate classrooms and professors to hire an adequate number of TFs. And there would still be no barrier to switching classes over shopping period...
...would be so simple for the college to prevent professors from putting caps on their lecture courses. Some of the largest classes at Harvard, such as Justice and Ec 10, have enough TFs, and are willing to higher more at short notice, to accommodate as many people as chose to enroll. Then again, maybe Harvard likes its reputation of not caring for undergraduates...