$11 million spent on class space
More than $11 million of student tuition was spent this year to improve class availability, the largest increase in money toward availability since the early 1990s, an official said.
About $7 million has paid for general education courses, $2 million for general education science courses and $2 million for upper-division courses in the college of Social and Behavioral Sciences, said Jerrold Hogle, vice provost for instruction.
The funds to help pay for teaching assistant and adjunct faculty salaries are from student tuition, Hogle said.
Some students are having trouble finding space in the classes they want, Hogle said, but he wants students to know it is a problem he is trying to solve.
The problem, Hogle said, comes from growing student enrollment that some UA colleges' budgets can't keep up with.
Communication, family and consumer sciences, journalism, political science and psychology are all departments identified as not meeting the needs of students trying to graduate in four years.
Lauren Moses, a communication junior, said she wasn't able to register for the communication classes she wanted because they were only being offered to graduating seniors.
"A communication major is one of the most popular majors and it's why I'm taking mostly English classes this semester. I couldn't get into any this semester," said Apryl Martin, a pre-communication sophomore.
Hogle said SBS now has the most students, with 6,570 majors, followed by the Eller College of Management, with 4,430 majors.
Hogle said about one-third of
pre-business students switched to other majors, mostly into SBS, after the Eller College set enrollment caps on upper-division business classes.
James Shockey, associate dean for instruction for SBS, said the departments put together course schedules each semester based on many factors, including precedent, student demand and the number of
instructors available with a rough idea of what their budgets will be like.
Shockey said budget cuts from the state legislature have restricted the department's ability to offer enough classes to meet student demand.
The state legislature has more money available this year to use toward funding higher education, Shockey said, but it's unclear whether they will give more money to the university.
Shockey said the budget cuts have forced departments to hold classes in larger lecture rooms, such as Social Sciences 100, to accommodate student demand.
Tara Schwirtz, a veterinary sciences sophomore, said she prefers smaller class sizes.
"In smaller classes it's a lot easier to pay attention and there's better teaching," Schwirtz said.
Hogle said improvements in general education course availability have been made in recent years.
"We've started recent semesters with unclaimed seats," Hogle said.
Hogle is chair of the UA faculty advisory committee on the accessibility of majors, minors and courses, the aim of which is to increase class availability.
"Since there is a problem with course availability, there is a feeling that nobody cares, but it's not true, " Hogle said. "We care. Not a day goes by that I don't make a move to aid the colleges with this problem."