In a recent study, only 63 percent of students at Wesleyan said they were generally or very satisfied with classes. According to the study, which cited 31 similar colleges, 70-90 percent of students at peer universities responded by saying they are generally or very satisfied.
The Administration believes the dissatisfaction comes from a lack of proper class distribution. By using a grid system that shows the number of classes offered in a time slot for a given semester, the Office of Academic Affairs discovered that the problem of “clustering” had increased.
Clustering refers to the disproportionate amount of classes allotted for very few time blocks. The majority of classes are scheduled during the same block periods: 10,11, and 1 for Monday, Wednesday, Friday and 10:30-11:50 a.m. and 1:10-2:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday.
“The problem is the bunching of classes,” said Brain Fay, Dean of Social Sciences. “If every professor offers a course at 11, then students could only take one class. The system that we have now is not meeting the needs of the students. Period.”
Fay is collaborating with a committee from Academic Affairs to find a solution to the scheduling problem. Academic Affairs is composed of the academic deans, President and Vice President of Academic Affairs and two Associate Provosts. Over the past year the Administration advised departments to be aware of class distribution throughout the week.
“The system we have been using asked for voluntary compliance within certain guidelines,” said Associate Provost Billy Weitzer. “We propose to add an additional guideline that would keep departments and programs from bunching their courses at the same time.”
In addition, the Administration would like to allow departments to schedule introductory classes the way they see fit. For example, the sciences offer introductory classes to chemistry, biology and physics at 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11a.m. respectively, for those students who may have to fulfill major requirements.
A forum held Thursday sought to inform the students and faculty of the current efforts to curb clustering and to incorporate the Wesleyan community voice. A follow-up session on Wednesday April, 14 is intended to play the same role. Prior to the forums, only the department chairs were consulted.
“There is a not universal but general agreement that course access is partly caused by class scheduling,” Professor of English Khachig Tololyan said. “But there is, as yet, no agreement among the faculty that the measures proposed by the administration are the right way to address it. We’ve got to bite a bullet but we don’t yet know which bullet.” Some members of the faculty find that the scheduling problem is more difficult than the Administration thinks, while others believe the administration may be misguided.
“The other thing many of us are skeptical about is that the course access problem can be solved this way,” said Professor of History and American Studies Claire Potter. “The course access problem, as it is understood by many faculty and students, is that an overwhelming number of students want to take about 25 classes. That is not a scheduling problem—that is a curriculum problem. [It’s a] different problem than they are trying to solve.”
The school has 75 classrooms to use at any one time and offers approximately 600 courses a semester. At peak times there are up to 1,700 students in the classroom where as the Administration is aiming to have 1,000 students in class be the maximum. The faculty will meet tomorrow with the Educational Policy Committee (EPC) to decide who has the authority to make the final decision.
“As for today’s forum, I was pleased with the turnout and the ideas that came from students, faculty and staff. I look forward to discussing this issue with the Educational Policy Committee, the Student Life Committee and those who come to the next open forum,” Wietzer said.
Few Wesleyan students attended the meeting but Chair of the Wesleyan Student Assembly Education Policy Committee Karen Courtheoux ’05 hopes there will be more on Wednesday.
“I think it would be good to have a student perspective. The good thing is that nothing has been decided or put into place,” Courtheoux said.
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