2008 Woodie Awards
Class sizes stay small
Stable freshmen enrollment keeps courses down
By: Meredith Mayberry
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
|
But Central Michigan University is not following the trend.
"(University) President (Michael) Rao wants to keep a standard number of incoming freshmen, so the overall population of Central stays pretty stable," said Betty Wagner, director of admissions. "If our freshman class stays stable, so will our class sizes."
Out of 3,123 sections offered this fall, 93 percent had 50 or fewer students enrolled, said Mary Meier, assistant director of Institutional Research. Of the 3,123 classes available, only eight sections have more than 200 students enrolled - less than 1 percent, according to Institutional Research's 2007 statistics.
"There were 1,838 sections offered this fall with enrollment of 25 students or fewer," Meier said. "That's 59 percent."
Wagner said she expects class sizes to remain low.
"The standards set on freshmen admissions will keep class sizes under control," Wagner said. "Class enrollment will either stay the same or maybe even get smaller in the future."
According to the National Center for Academic Transformation, standard courses such as English or science draw the most students and account for 35 percent of four-year college enrollment nationwide.
Small classes usually happen because of enrollment restrictions set by individual departments or colleges at the university, Meier said.
"Sometimes they will set an enrollment minimum and if that isn't met, the section will be canceled," Meier said. "That standard can vary by college or department, though."
Professors have the option of giving students bump cards, which increase the overall class size by allowing students to enroll in a section that would otherwise be considered full.
Meier said there is no limit on how many bump cards a professor can give out.
"The professor has no restrictions besides the fact that the enrollment shouldn't exceed the capacity of the room," Meier said.
The cards must be signed by the department chair. Individual departments and colleges set class sizes and may put restrictions on the number of bump cards given out each semester.
Despite CMU's number of small classes, CMU still offers an array of larger sections. The biggest class size of this semester was 349 students, Meier said.
Right now there are 209 classes available with anywhere from 51 to 200 students enrolled.
The larger classes tend to be university program courses that all students are required to take.
Wagner said students don't seem to mind the small class sizes and atmosphere CMU offers.
"The size of our institution is one thing aspiring students look for," Wagner said. "We are large enough to offer different academic programs with great facilities, but we're small enough so students can walk around campus and see people they know."
news@cm-life.com
Be the first to comment on this story