"I've had questions from [students] asking if this is an ordinary Core course, or harder than an ordinary course," she said.
Marc G. Metakis '99, who is taking Time as an elective, said he wishes the course would focus more on general concepts rather than detailed problem sets.
"Five years from now, I'm not going to care if I can solve these problems. I'm going to care if I can talk about the theories and the general ideas that we're supposed to learn about in this course."
An ordinary Core course, student said, should live up to the program's promise and target the general student population. Problems arise when the workload or difficulty of the course isn't in line with this goal, and the result may be student's self-selecting within Core offerings based on previous experience.
David M. Nicoll '02, a student in Moral Reasoning 28: "Ethics and International Relations," said although those in the class have a wide range of experience, many had already been exposed to the subject matter.
"I do think there is a big discrepancy in exposure to the topic beforehand," Nicoll said."This course sort of selects for the people whohave experience." But one of the course's instructors said hedoes not make a distinction between materialtaught in Core courses and inter-departmentalcourses. Revisions in the syllabus do not seemlikely. "In terms of scope and of range or readings, Idon't feel I have sacrificed anything," saidStanley Hoffman, C. Douglas Dillon professor ofthe civilization of France. Even those in Time may not see much change incourse demands. Although the teaching staff saidthey plan to revise the class based on students'concerns this semester, changes will probably notbe seen until next year. "I think it's always going to be challenging tounderstand the concepts involved," Dixon said."But there can be a lot of fine tuning in that. "That can make the job of taking the coursesignificantly easier than it is now, or at leastmake [students] more comfortable about this beingat the Core course level," he added