By Brent C. Gambrell
Arizona Summer Wildcat
Monday August 25, 2003
Attendance on the first day is crucial
If you're thinking about skipping class on the first day, you might want to think again.
The Office of Curriculum and Registration sent out an e-mail notice last week, warning that those students who skip class on the first day risk being dropped by the professor.
Due to a high demand for seats in many classes, instructors have been asked to drop those students who do not show up on the first day of class and fail to notify the department of their absence, the notice stated.
Attendance is especially critical for students taking math, English composition, and foreign language classes, where there is a high demand for seats, the notice added.
Administrators said they hope that the notice, which was also sent to
students last semester, will help students who were not able to register for the class prior to the first day.
Juan Garcia, head of the history department, said he leaves the decision of using the policy up to the individual professors.
"Sometimes there's classes that are in high demand, and this policy is fair to all those students on the waiting list," Garcia said. "Personally, I don't like to use it. It hurts students who may have a good reason for missing class."
But Garcia said that due to budget cuts, he and other department heads have struggled to keep classes and seats open.
Although seats are still scarce, administrators said the situation has improved since last year.
The university has allocated several million dollars to help class availability for the entire academic year, not just for the fall semester, said Randy Richardson, vice president for undergraduate education.
"We recognized that the experiences of last year were unacceptable, and allocated money for more classes," Richardson said. "The colleges have known about the additional resources since spring, and have been better able to plan to students' needs."
Rick Kroc, director of assessment and enrollment research, said the average credit hours dropped last year from 14.2 to 13.9 credits for freshmen and from 13.1 to 12.9 for underclassmen, even with enrollment rising.
Kroc said this year; the average was back up to 14.4 credit hours for freshmen and 13.3 for underclassmen.
"We try to encourage all students to be full time because it helps to connect with the campus," Kroc said. "Last year, full time might not have been an available option for some students."
In addition, to keep classes available for those students who register late, Debra Castelan, senior academic advisor for the School of Art, said seats were held for students throughout registration.
But Castelan said she is now worried about expanding some classes past an ideal limit in order to open more spaces for
students.
"We've been approached about expanding some of our classes, both at the general education and upper division levels," Castelan said. "Sometimes though, it's just not safe or effectively taught in a larger class. For us, the small classes must be small to be effective and for our student's safety."
Administrators' decisions to hold seats and make new funds available to open classes helped ease the registration process for students.
"I had no problems getting classes," said Ryan Erickson, a business and communications freshman. "I got the classes I needed, at the times I wanted. It was pretty easy."
"Registration was easy," said Laure Golato, a sociology freshman. "There wasn't a hassle at all, everything went really smoothly and easy."
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Correction
Several statements made by senior academic adviser Debra Castelan were misconstrued. Castelan said course sections had been set aside for students who attended orientations, not for students who registered late. She also did not say the School of Art had been approached by administrators about increasing the number of general education classes it offers, as was stated in the article. The article also reported that Castelan was worried about a possible increase in class size for studio art courses. However, she said she was not worried about these increases because the school decided long ago to keep studio art class sizes low.
The Wildcat regrets the errors.
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"It went pretty good, better than last year. Especially when they had freshmen register in the mornings and everyone else in the afternoons."
"Everything went pretty good. I'm a senior so I didn't have any problems."
"Everything went pretty good and registration was very easy. There was no stress with registration."
"Registration, administratively, has been fine this year. Financial wise, it has sucked. It seems as if the students are suffering for other's mistakes."
"Everything was easy. I got in all of my classes but one, and people are working to fit me in. Other than that, I got into all the classes and times I wanted."
