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The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

College Scraps Unpopular Classes Before Add-Drop

The Office of the College Dean has instructed department heads to delete courses that do not meet an eight-student enrollment minimum during pre-registration in order to minimize costs and inefficiency, denying students the chance to add these classes to their schedules during the add-drop period at the beginning of the semester.

This guideline was implemented in an email sent to department chairs in August.

Several faculty members objected to the policy, resulting in the appointment of a committee to propose changes to the dean.

“We’re still trying to manage our resources, but we’re doing it at the planning stage, not at the last-minute stage in terms of cancellation,” College Senior Associate Dean of Faculty and Strategic Planning Jeff Connor-Linton said. “Often, policies evolve, and we’re trying to find the right balance. It was not workable. It was not the right way to go.”

Department heads have been asked to plan course offerings according to enrollment data from previous years, in order to meet the eight-student minimum.

“What we’ve asked department chairs to do for this spring is to look at enrollment data from the last several years, and if a course that they planned to offer had had enrollments under eight, to let us know why that was necessary and why they thought it would have more enrollment this time,” Connor-Linton said.

Connor-Linton added that many courses are exempt from cancellation, such as courses that fulfill general education requirements, major requirements and upper-level language courses.

“Half of the curriculum is protected from low enrollment issues anyway. Another 40 percent of courses are protected by the fact that they never have under-enrollments,” he said. “Last year, a total of 5 percent of college courses had an enrolment under six students. It’s a very small slice anyway.”

According to the US News & World Report, 60 percent of classes in Georgetown have fewer than 20 students, with only 7 percent of classes including over 50 students.

Connor-Linton said that he predicts that most of the courses that will be affected by the policy will be electives. The policy will result in classes that do not meet the eight-student minimum being offered less frequently.

“What we’re trying to do is make sure that the same small enrollment courses are not offered too frequently,” Connor-Linton said. “If you have a small enrollment course, that’s OK, but maybe offer it every third or fourth semester, so that demand builds up.”

Both Connor-Linton and Pierce foresee little impact on students’ course selections during pre-registration. Courses would be deleted after pre-registration but before the start of the add-drop period.

“If a class does have to be cancelled, it’ll happen between [pre-registration and add-drop], so when students hear about their courses, in the unlikely case that their first choice is cancelled, they’ll still get their alternate course,” Connor-Linton said.

According to the University Registrar and Assistant Provost John Q. Pierce, the enrollment minimum would have no impact on the add-drop process.

“The policy is aimed at determining which courses will be offered. I don’t expect that any noticeable impact will occur in add-drop,” Pierce said. “The thinking of the dean is that students would be better served by having the faculty member teach a course that would attract more student interest rather than a course that has never achieved much enrollment.”

Connor-Linton said that the policy would benefit both faculty members and students.

“There are pedagogical benefits for a small course. A lot of us feel that 12 is the minimum we really want in a class. If I only have six, there are a lot of things I can’t do,” Connor-Linton said. “It’s also an issue of fairness among the distribution of teaching load among faculty. If you’re teaching four really small courses, you’re not carrying the same load as somebody else.”

Davis Wong (COL ’18) said that the enrollment minimum is a further threat to electives in the College.

“I feel like at a school like Georgetown, we don’t have enough of an emphasis on electives. It’s easy to fall into a typical academic route, so I support anything that allows people to flesh themselves out more,” Wong said. “Besides, I would definitely enjoy being in smaller-sized classes.”

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  • H

    Hoya QuestionsNov 18, 2014 at 5:46 pm

    Why would you interview someone from the Class of 2018 on their views about electives? Why are they qualified to talk about anything academically related, considering they haven’t even finished their first semester of college?

    Reply
  • S

    Senior with a Music MinorNov 18, 2014 at 1:16 pm

    What does this mean for small departments, like Music, which often have upper-level courses with fewer than five students in the class? Will we be left with a grand total of five or so classes, most of which will be intro level courses we’ve already taken, from which to choose? Doesn’t sound good…

    Reply
  • S

    Small seminarNov 18, 2014 at 11:44 am

    Small classes are the best! Don’t cancel me!

    Reply