A paucity of summer course offerings across all departments may have many students complaining, but many of those majoring in smaller departments are troubled by their lack of options. These programs offer either no courses at all or nothing but an independent study, making fulfilling major requirements inordinately difficult, they said.
This summer, the classics department is offering no Greek or Latin language or literature courses. Students will also have to wait until the fall to take Jewish studies and linguistics courses, while the African and African American studies, Latino and Caribbean studies and Asian and Mideast studies programs offer guided independent studies or thesis research only.
Department chairs and deans maintain that small departments' limited resources mean that offering courses in the summer merely subtracts from the number that can be taught during the rest of the year, when more students are on campus. It is an either-or choice for small departments, they said, not a question of negligence or lack of interest by professors.
And even though rumor has it that professors are reluctant to teach during the summer because students don't take the work seriously, some professors said that on the contrary, they only wish their departments had enough staff to offer courses year-round.
Jewish studies chair Susannah Heschel, for instance, cited a course she taught last summer where the students were among the most committed and engaged she has ever encountered. And Dean of Social Sciences Richard Wright fondly recalled a class he taught during the summer of 1993 called "Economic Geography and Globaliazation."
"I look back on that class as the best I've ever taught," Wright said, noting that out of a class of 63 students the course produced five thesis students and one senior fellow.
Rather, the lack of summer courses is more a result of limited staffing than faculty reluctance to teach, College officials said, although they acknowledged that department heads must constantly negotiate scheduling concerns with professors.
The classics department's meager allotment of eight courses by the College has resulted in the elimination of Greek and Latin language classes during the summer, department chair Lindsay Whaley said.
"It used to be that we would try to offer one upper-level Latin and one upper level Greek class during the summer," he said, "but with the addition of an ancient history major, we just don't have enough faculty to do that. We discuss all the time whether it's smart to cut them out in the summer."
A few professors have chosen to take on heavier teaching loads in order to allow students to pursue their interests. Last summer, Professor Roberta Stewart taught an extra Greek language class, while Heschel added another course in Jewish studies.
Nevertheless, faculty scheduling concerns do come into play in determining summer course offerings. Both deans and department heads were tight-lipped about how professor teaching loads get decided, except to say that they are negotiated between department chairs and faculty members, and that professors are generally expected to teach four courses a year. However, most noted that whether or not a professor teaches in the summer is generally a matter of individual choice, not excessive cajoling by the department head.
"Occasionally there may be a faculty chair who specifically asks a department member to teach during the summer," Heschel said.
For some, Dartmouth's flexible calendar means that teaching in the summer is more of an advantage than a burden.
"For a significant number of my colleagues having the opportunity to teach in the summer and take a term off sometime during the rest of the year is something that's very attractive," Wright said, noting that an amenable schedule may even have been an enticement for some faculty to come to Dartmouth in the first place.
On the other hand, Whaley mentioned a classics professor who prefers to teach during the year in order to spend summers at a vacation home in England.
Another scheduling concern for smaller programs is that some share faculty with other departments and therefore have to organize their courses around professors' prior commitments to their respective departments. Major departments get priority over smaller programs such as Jewish studies when it comes to determining course offerings, Heschel said.
For example, a professor who wanted to teach a course in African and African American studies during the summer might agree to do so only on the condition that he or she could arrange to teach a second course in another department -- something that might not be possible to negotiate, African and African American studies chair J. Martin Favor said.
Professors often arrange their teaching schedules with their independent research in mind, Favor said. Most faculty prefer to take one term off per year rather than teaching one course per term because it is more conducive to research.
"There is a slight disadvantage for students," Ian Storey '04 said. "But the advantage it brings in terms of professors being able to do things that get Dartmouth departments and Dartmouth as a College recognized nationally is more than worthwhile."
Storey has worked closely with professors within Jewish studies, especially Heschel.
Still, for many students, the availability of courses of more concern than the professors' research schedules -- especially when it comes to major- classes.
Katie Gilbert '05 has yet to declare a major, but said that the fact that she cannot take either a government or linguistics class this term only confounds her decision-making problem. The government department offers just one upper-level seminar this summer in her field of interest -- International Relations -- and there are no linguistics classes.
"I feel like this is sort of a pivotal time for people to decide their majors," Gilbert said. "I realize that only one-fourth of the campus is here, but why don't they put one-fourth their resources into the summer?"
Gilbert said that she recognizes that departments have limited resources, but said she would prefer one fewer course be taught during the year, in exchange for some help with her difficult decision.
But other students said that all it takes is a little forward-planning to avoid problems fulfilling major requirements -- and that the attention and high-quality teaching in small departments more than makes up for scheduling headaches.
"Selfishly, I guess I wish there were more resources but I guess it's something you know getting into it -- that it's a small department," linguistics major Emily Hess '05 said.
The linguistics department knows that offering a class only once during a student's four years at Dartmouth may make fulfilling requirements difficult and is willing to negotiate other alternatives, she added.
It would be preferable if the classics department offered just one upper-level language course during the summer for majors, Zach Rubeo '05 said, but students can work around the problem by doubling up on major classes during another term.
"You've got students who have just declared their majors...and they're interested in following through on that commitment and taking classes in the department they've chosen," Wright added. "These students just got excited about a particular major -- most departments realize that and capitalize on the idea."
