With seniority comes many things. Getting into Psychological Statistics, a course required for majors, is not necessarily one of them. Although the University has promised to add faculty to the government, psychology, and sociology departments as part of its Strategic Plan, students and professors alike must navigate an increasingly crowded system.
The government department, whose 174 majors make it the most popular concentration on campus, has presented students with especially great challenges in completing requirements.
Alexandra Loh ’06, a government-East Asian studies double major, said she will have to take three government classes in the spring in order to complete the major.
“Along the way it was very difficult to get into more than one government class per semester if you were lucky enough to get into one at all,” said Loh. “With the government interest so apparent and the classes offered far and few in between, the government crunch starts as soon as you declare and then ends with the gov major being dropped.”
The psychology department, although not catering to as many majors, faces similar strains in resources.
“During my time at Wes, the psychology department has had a shortage of seats in required classes, upper level seminars, and faculty to advise theses,” said Rachael Lax ’06, who took statistics in the math department after she was unable to take the class in her own department.
Indeed, the limited availability of Psych Stats is one of the most common complaints from psychology majors.
“I have clicked psych stats first every semester and still haven’t gotten in” said Emily Privot ’06, who transferred to Wesleyan as a sophomore. “I hope I get to take it next semester so I may graduate.”
“There are usually not enough sections of Psych Stats taught in any given semester,” said Gabrielle Tynes-Labonte ’06. “I’m just glad there were spots open and the professor took pity on a senior and gave me a seat!”
For all of these complaints, the psychology department implemented changes over the past year that will enable more students to access to more classes.
“We have added sections for courses that are required for the major and that also serve non-majors,” said Ruth Striegel-Moore, chair of the psychology department. “For example, this year we will offer four sections of statistics to help ease access problems to the course.”
In addition, Striegel-Moore said that the department has added more courses in the cognitive, biological, and neuroscience area.
The students agree that the department’s curriculum has become more accessible.
“After a complete review of the department and students voicing their concerns, the psychology department has done an incredible job of addressing many of these issues,” Lax said. “They have hired new faculty, offered new upper-level courses and multiple sections of statistics and research methods. I only wish I had a few more years to benefit from all the coming improvements.”
Brianna Zinser ’06, a psychology major, was apprehensive about finding classes after returning from a semester abroad. She was pleasantly surprised at how painless the process turned out to be.
“I was a little concerned that I may not get into the courses I needed and wanted,” said Zinser. “I was lucky to secure a spot in Qualitative Research Methods of Psych through online registration.”
To those students who aren’t so lucky, department chairs say that there is a distinction between not being able to find a fourth class, and not getting into a class that seems appealing.
“We have some classes that students see as ‘must have’ experiences because of the exceptional teaching skills, eloquence, and charisma of the professors,” said Striegel-Moore. “There are professors who would draw an overflow crowd no matter how many seats they offer.”
Unlike the other social science disciplines, the history department hasn’t had too many problems accommodating its students’ interests.
“I’ve never had any trouble getting into history classes,” said Kate Fletcher ’06. “I take a lot of Russian history, which only about five people are into, so that could be why.”
Some history majors, however, feel similarly squeezed out of what they believe are the best classes.
“I do feel like the history department decides to offer all of its most interesting classes at the same time, or better yet, hold the required classes at times when some of the most interesting classes of the department are offered,” said Kate Reil ’07, a history major.
This may be precisely the point. Were students able to take too many classes in their major per semester, others wouldn’t just have trouble getting the classes they wanted; the classes they needed would too be unavailable.
According to Richard Boyd, chair of the government department, if each major tried to take four government courses per year, demand from majors alone would total more than 700 enrollments. As it is, according to Boyd, all but three of the courses being offered by the government department this semester “have pending enrollment requests that cannot all be met.”
Although certain fields within the government department, namely the international politics concentration, are more popular than others, every class is in high demand. The strain put upon the department’s resources is compounded by its obligation to underclass students.
“Of course, we also have to serve frosh and sophomores in introductory and survey courses, plus majors from other departments,” said Boyd. “The unfortunate fact is that even senior majors cannot always successfully enroll in the departmental courses they most wish to take.”
For students without a finalized schedule, this competition with underclassmen for seats is an added inconvenience.
“Underclass students want exposure to the department’s most intriguing classes when selecting their major, but upper-class students want to keep such gems small for a better classroom dynamic,” Privot said of the psychology department.
“Even with that first click primed for a government class, the network lag already says that maybe the rest of Wes registering at that time is clicking for the same class!” Loh said. “As a sophomore or junior, and even when you are a senior, getting into a good government class is like a game of beg and plead. The success rate is minimal.”
Aware that many of its social science departments are being stretched too thin, the administration plans to add eight new faculty members as part of its strategic plan.
“While making the best of current resources, we anticipate that we will have to add a small number of faculty in the social sciences, including psychology. The departments with the heaviest unmet demand are psychology, government, and sociology. Our data indicate that neither improved use of current academic resources nor viable reallocations will have sufficient impact to solve the problem.”
According to Boyd, who said that the government department has “only” four faculty members offering courses in international politics, its most popular concentration, the addition of professors won’t necessarily alleviate demand.
“Adding faculty to overburdened departments will surely help, but we all recognize that a new faculty member in a new field will also attract new demand,” Boyd said.
Boyd has a less costly suggestion for students while they await the implementation of this “ambitious goal”: Don’t double major in the social sciences.
“More than a third of our majors are double and triple majors, which adds greatly to the demand,” Boyd said. “If the university were to find a reasonable and broadly acceptable way of constraining the growth of double majors, class access problems would diminish substantially.”
In the meantime, many students would prefer to learn in an over-enrolled class than settle for a course that interests them less. Madeline Shapiro ’06, a psychology major, was pleased with Robert Steele’s response to the overwhelming turnout on the first day of his Cultural Psychology class, which is now over-enrolled by over 30 students.
“His attitude was that if students didn’t care that if once and a while they’d have to sit on the floor, he didn’t care either,” said Shapiro. “And most students I know would rather sit on the floor for three hours a week than not get their requirements completed or hunt for classes which don’t really interest them.”
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