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Volume CXXXII, Number 14 |
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Smaller class sizes proposed
ADAM BABER
ORIENT STAFF
In an effort to promote reduced class sizes and faculty-student interaction, the faculty Committee on Curriculum and Educational Policy (CEP) has proposed a lowering of enrollment limits on certain classes.
If approved by the faculty at large, the measure would lower enrollment limits for 100-level courses from 75 to 50 students, and for 200-level courses from 50 to 35 students. The proposed changes have been discussed by the CEP for nearly a year and would go into effect for the 2003-2004 academic year. Given particular reasons, individual academic departments could still set higher or lower enrollments for their classes.
According to Professor of Anthropology and CEP member Scott MacEachern, the primary impetus behind the changes is a desire for smaller class size. "Faculty think that, all other things being equal, teaching goes on most effectively in smaller courses, where we can interact with students as individuals," he said.
MacEachern also noted that, at least with the 100-level courses, the proposed changes "more or less present reality" in that few classes capped at 75 enroll more than 50 students.
One of MacEachern's colleagues in the anthropology department, Professor Susan Kaplan, expressed concerns about the proposed changes. "My concerns are that if this proposal is implemented, increasing numbers of students will fail to get into courses they want to take," she said. "This will create a demand to add faculty to cover multiple sections of both 100 and 200- level courses, just at a time when the institution is having serious budget problems."
Kaplan also argued for maintaining large, lecture-oriented classes at Bowdoin. "Many [students] will go on for more schooling in preparation for a career or while employed. [They] will find [themselves] in large lecture classes and will immediately have to perform at a high level," she said. "Bowdoin should be preparing its students to learn in a variety of environments, employing a diversity of techniques. Shouldn't large lecture classes be part of the mix?"
MacEachern stressed that the proposed enrollment limit changes are still in the planning stage. "This is, at this point, at the evaluation and discussion stage: it seemed to us that there were some significant advantages to the idea, and now we need to hear what other people think."
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