Today students get their their first glimpse of the 1994 Course Guide, which the Student Assembly produced in an attempt to provide them with insight from their peers into courses offered throughout the academic year.
But the guide, which describes 215 different courses, only includes 32 of the College's 37 academic departments and programs. While some departments have almost all their classes listed, others have a very low percentage of their courses covered or are not even mentioned.
This year the guide includes descriptions of several popular professors in the beginning in addition to the usual course summaries. Each course description contains student opinions and ratings on a scale of one to five of the professors, the difficulty level, the grading and the course itself.
The Course Guide is usually an annual product of the Assembly, though it was never put together last year and the year before it came out on disk.
The production of the guide cost $8,000 -- more than one fifth of the Assembly's total budget -- and was limited to 3,000 copies "because of financial constraints," according to a statement issued by the Assembly. There are about 3,850 students enrolled in classes this term, but the Assembly "projects that this will satisfy the demand for this guide," according to the statement.
Grace Chionuma '96, Summer term Assembly president, said the guide was produced for almost the same amount as the previous one and that over the past five years the cost has been reduced.
The guide is available for free to students who request it or can be picked up this week at one of the dining halls. "It is still a sizable investment ... but it would be unacceptable to charge students for it," Chionuma said.
Members of the Assembly planned the guide during Spring term and did the bulk of the work over the summer under the organization of Chionuma and the graphic designing of Michael Corriere '94.
Assembly members wrote the descriptions, basing them on critiques by students who had taken the courses last year. The Assembly distributed questionaires to departments, which were responsible for passing them along to students to fill out at the end of each term.
A note from the guide's editor in chief, Andrew Friedman '96, who is studying in Scotland this term, attributes the lack of even coverage of departments to a lack of response and the fact that not all the departments gave their questionaires to the students.
For instance, there is no section on Native American studies, and art history and women's studies have only one course listed each.
Chionuma said "it will take a concerted effort on everyone's part" to improve next year's guide and make sure it includes more courses. "There is a weaknes in terms of being able to gather this kind of information consistently," she said.
Members of the Assembly said this year's guide is the most in-depth Assembly Course Guide to date; it includes194 pages, a bright purple cover and is filled with graphics and pictures of professors.
Assembly President Danielle Moore '95 said this guide is "more comprehensive" than in past years and stressed its "higher quality design and print."
Assembly member Brandon del Pozo '96, who was involved in the project, described the guide as more "professional" and said the only problem he sees is that it must be updated continually.
"The weakness is that professors change, courses change. We will need a new one next year," he said. Del Pozo said the only change he would make would be to have more professor profiles because they give you "more insight into a class than the numbers (ratings)."
The guide is supposed to serve as a supplement to the book Organizations, Regulations and Courses, which is produced annually by the College. But the guide contains only about a quarter of the courses listed in the ORC.
Unlike the ORC, the guide does not list what requirements each course fulfills in the new curriculum, which started this year.
Because of the limited number of copies, students will be able to reserve copies by sending a BlitzMail message to the Assembly. Copies will also be available at Collis today from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Thayer today and tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m. and at the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
