Only 52 students have currently enrolled in this year’s new Summer Session, leaving administrators and professors hoping that the coming weeks will bring an influx of sign-ups.
“It’s a pilot—the whole point is to try it and make adjustments,” said President Michael Roth. “We didn’t expect the program to make money in year one.”
The five-week session was created this year to give students more academic opportunities and to utilize campus resources that normally sit unused during the summer. Of the 25 courses scheduled, some may end up being cancelled if no students enroll, but the University plans to run classes even with low enrollment.
“One of the best classes I ever took as an undergraduate had just three other students,” wrote Charles Salas, Director of Strategic Initiatives, in an e-mail to The Argus. “If, in fact, we do end up with classes as intimate as that, they will be rare opportunities that the students—if not those responsible for the budget—should celebrate.”
Economics Professor Richard Adelstein, who is teaching Introduction to Economic Theory (Econ 110) during the Summer Session, said that he thinks the low enrollment rates are a result of this being the program’s trial run.
“I think what’s happening is that it’s a brand new program so that the principal consumers have never done this before—it’s never been a part of their thinking,” he said. “There’s an enormous amount of inertia to overcome. What we’re doing now is an experiment designed to see what this would look like.”
English Professor Sean McCann, whose class “American Culture in the Great Depression” currently has zero students enrolled, said that he thinks the Summer Session offers unique opportunities to students and hopes that students will enroll in his class.
“Especially if you’re doing one or two courses, it can be a nice change of pace,” he said. “It provides flexibility and a different setting in which to study and do research.”
Students staying for the summer session, which runs from June 7 to July 9, will be housed in Hewitt. Applications will continue to be accepted into June.