Class registration causes concerns
By: Lucy First
Issue date: 5/5/09 Section: News
Students registering for classes for next fall may have noticed they did not get the classes they wanted.
DePauw registrar Ken Kirkpatrick submitted a report to Neal Abraham, executive vice president, detailing "how close students came to being enrolled in the amount of credit they requested."
According to the report, about 80 percent of enrolling students received three of four course credits requested. The difference is up from 74.2 percent in the fall of 2009.
In the report, Kirkpatrick said there is a decrease in the number of seats available for students. In the fall of 2008, 13,670 seats were open for 100-400 level classes. In the fall of 2009, that number dropped by 846 spaces.
In an interview, Kirkpatrick said that the decline in available seats was expected but not known in what departments it would affect.
"We know the actual number of seats in classes is down 6 percent, but where they are down is not constant," Kirkpatrick said.
He added that it is "unfortunate" that 100 and 200 level classes are down but classes are balancing out as professors change the maximum limits on classes.
Kirkpatrick mentioned that biology, communication and chemistry were the departments in which students seemed to have the most problems getting into classes.
The report says that such scheduling issues were not "pure technology problems" but rather the result of "the usual reasons" such as "failure to identify alternate selections, choosing primaries for which the priorities do not match, and picking only very popular courses."
Kirkpatrick said that the biology department is still trying to figure out if students were not getting what they wanted or if there were not enough classes. As for communications, he said that students just wanted to take primarily communication classes and students need to spread out their course selections into other departments.
As for chemistry, department chair Bridget Gourley said the situation is not anything new. Gourley said that the number of chemistry faculty on leave is higher than the average for the University so there are fewer classes.
DePauw registrar Ken Kirkpatrick submitted a report to Neal Abraham, executive vice president, detailing "how close students came to being enrolled in the amount of credit they requested."
According to the report, about 80 percent of enrolling students received three of four course credits requested. The difference is up from 74.2 percent in the fall of 2009.
In the report, Kirkpatrick said there is a decrease in the number of seats available for students. In the fall of 2008, 13,670 seats were open for 100-400 level classes. In the fall of 2009, that number dropped by 846 spaces.
In an interview, Kirkpatrick said that the decline in available seats was expected but not known in what departments it would affect.
"We know the actual number of seats in classes is down 6 percent, but where they are down is not constant," Kirkpatrick said.
He added that it is "unfortunate" that 100 and 200 level classes are down but classes are balancing out as professors change the maximum limits on classes.
Kirkpatrick mentioned that biology, communication and chemistry were the departments in which students seemed to have the most problems getting into classes.
The report says that such scheduling issues were not "pure technology problems" but rather the result of "the usual reasons" such as "failure to identify alternate selections, choosing primaries for which the priorities do not match, and picking only very popular courses."
Kirkpatrick said that the biology department is still trying to figure out if students were not getting what they wanted or if there were not enough classes. As for communications, he said that students just wanted to take primarily communication classes and students need to spread out their course selections into other departments.
As for chemistry, department chair Bridget Gourley said the situation is not anything new. Gourley said that the number of chemistry faculty on leave is higher than the average for the University so there are fewer classes.
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