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By Alicia A. Caldwell
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 16, 1996
Departments campus-wide have recognized that students are not able to enroll in core classes needed to progress with their majors, and now they're doing something about it.According to David A. Williams, communication professor and undergraduate adviser, the department knows there is indeed a problem regarding the availability of core classes in communications.
Williams said the problem comes partly from an overflow of students changing their majors late in their academic careers.
The overflow creates a greater demand for core classes that all communications majors need to graduate.
Now that the department has found the problem, Williams said, it is taking action to correct it.
Sally Jackson, instructor of Laboratory Methods in Communication Research, made the decision that anyone who needed and wanted to take the course would be admitted.
This course started with five sections of 25 students each, and expanded to eight sections of 25 students each.
Another short-term solution is the addition of visiting professors. Williams said, however, that the department cannot bring in as many as it would like.
The department has looked into the possibilities of rearranging the order of the curriculum, moving 300 and 400 level courses to the 200 level to create larger classes and a greater availability of classes.
The department and all instructors are doing whatever it can to accommodate the greatest number of students, Williams said.
"All of our instructors are carrying a full teaching load," he said.
The English Department has also taken steps to increase course availability, said English Professor Thomas Willard, director of undergraduate studies.
The English Department has begun to expand the size of undergraduate classes and the number of sections of classes being offered.
Willard said the previous director, English Professor Gene Koppel, started the changes, in an effort to reduce the backlog of students unable to enroll in the classes they needed for graduation.
Like the communications, the English department has made efforts to rearrange its curriculum by moving 300 and 400 level courses to the 200 level.
The English Department also has remodeled some of the lower-division courses by creating discussion sessions that meet once a week.
Willard said these efforts seem to be working. He said he knew of no complaints thus far in the fall semester.
"All of the students that came to my class on the first day were able to be signed in," Willard said about one of his own undergraduate classes.
In total, the department has increased the literature courses offered by an average of 20 percent. Some classes have seen a smaller or larger increased based on the size of the room in which the class is located, said Tom J. Collins, assistant to the head of the English Department.
Professor Malcolm A. Compitello, head of the Spanish and Portuguese Department, said his department has opened 10 new sections in first, second and third year Spanish to make courses more accessible.
"The basic problem is budget constraints and trying to accommodate the greatest number of students possible," Compitello said.
Representatives from the math, engineering, political science and journalism departments said there has been no real problem regarding class availability for students who registered right away. They went on to say each department does whatever it can to make classes as available as possible.
Professor Thomas Volgy, acting head of the Political Science Department, said he had had only two complaints so far this semester.
Representatives from all departments contacted said that majors and minors are given top priority in course enrollment.
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