Shaunna Cullen – Staff Writer –
Kiersten Aichinger, a senior art major, said low enrollment caused her Fall 2012 Pottery III to be cancelled.
“I was disappointed because they’ll close art classes without thinking twice about it. Ultimately it can set me back a semester or two,” said Aichinger.
Aichinger said she ended up having to sign up for two more classes, one of them an art class, but had to rearrange her schedule because of the art lab.
Aichinger said she was under the impression that it was up to the Registrar’s Office as to what classes would be cancelled.
She said she thought art classes were more likely to be cancelled because they are not as popular as businesses or English courses.
Kathie Fullard, a worker at the Office of the Registrar, said it is up to the individual departments as whether or not they cancel a class.
“Low enrollment or no instructors” are two reasons a class might be cancelled, said Fullard.
Chairman of the art department Greg Cochenet said the art department has cancelled a lot of classes that do not require prerequisites.
“We have three sections of Intro to Photo[graphy], we normally offer four. The Metals and Jewelry is a good example, we normally offer four [sections], we are down to two,” said Cochenet of a couple classes.
Cochenet said because freshmen no longer choose their classes their first semester, it already sets them up for a pre-determined second semester. This delays them getting into the lower level art classes.
“All of this has a ripple effect. Students are delayed getting into their major. Now we are seeing that delay in the major only courses. The 300 and 400 level courses are suffering,” said Cochenet.
Cochenet said usually the Dean of Arts and Sciences will sometimes cancel an art class if the enrollment in the class is less than 50% of the total amount of student accepted or less than five students.
However, Cochenet said the dean does take into account what the professors have to say about the course and exceptions they wish her to take into consideration.
For example, Cochenet said, for one of the art classes, a Praxis exam must be taken before the student can register for it. But, sometimes the results will not come in until after registration, and so it appears there are only a few students in the class.
This is where Cochenet can tell the Dean he knows of several more students that are waiting on results.
Low registration is not just effecting the art department.
Leah Migliore, sophomore math major, said her Education 101 class was cancelled due to low enrollment.
“I had to drop a class to later in the day to be able to fit in a different section of the education class,” said Migliore. She said she wanted to make sure she graduates on time and always goes with her advisor’s suggestions when it comes to registration.
Migliore said she normally wouldn’t mind the class change, but since she works full-time, she likes to have all her classes done by noon. She said she likes time to do homework before she works for the rest of the afternoon until 10 p.m.
“There’s less time to do my homework now. I’ll have a lot of late night studying,” said Migliore.
