"It's a tough situation, since the English Department especially has these strict period requirements," he says. "The English Department has been good about making sure that if there are classes like those that fulfill requirements, history and literature concentrators get preference when they need it."

Goodwin says although he knows some students were counting on taking Bercovitch's course, they understand the unavoidable and unexpected nature of his absence.

"If someone gets sick, he gets sick, and there's nothing you can do about it," he says.

Kimberlee K. Bortfeld '98, a psychology concentrator, says she thinks the College could do a better job of compensating for absent professors.

"There are definitely times when you go through the course catalogue and there's just nothing," she says.

But Tarissa Mitchell '99, an English concentrator, disagrees.

"The only problem I've ever had with this sort of thing was a couple years ago, when a teacher I wanted to take a course make necessary courses available to those who need to take them.

"If you need a course, you get it," he says emphatically.

Desperately Seeking Advisers

Although students can usually find curricular alternatives to bracketed course offerings, finding an academic adviser or a thesis adviser is often more difficult.

The 1997 senior survey, in which students were specifically asked if they had been left without an adviser when a Faculty member took a leave of absence or left the University, shows significant student dissatisfaction.

The statistics varied widely from one concentration to the next. In some concentrations, it had never happened, while in others nearly 30 percent of students reported being left without an adviser.

"Apparently there are a non-negligible number of cases in which the student does not get adequately picked up, or is left to seek out an alternate adviser independently," said Harry R. Lewis '68, dean of the college. "The departments should remember to be proactive in taking care of this problem."

In the Biology department, nearly 27 percent of students said an adviser on leave had left them alone.

William Gelbart, the head tutor for biology, said the problem of advisees being left alone is inevitable.

"It's tough because people need to have scheduled leaves and you can't really not assign someone to be an adviser because they're going to be on leave two years from then," he said.