Follow up on course capacity

Published by May 9, 2018 | By Lena Zhu

The increase in course caps has become a major issue at Kean University since February. The limbo state in which some course capacity numbers may increase affects students and faculty.

Some professors reported in March that various administrators were telling them that their course capacity will be increased in apparent violation of University Senate rules.

The number of students in the class may affect how well the students learn. A class size with a possibility for 35 students may not be the best environment in which a student can learn effectively.

At the April 3rd meeting, Dr. Patrick Ippolito, President of the University Senate, went over a proposed solution that the administration had suggested.

“We attempted to have full time faculty to teach those course that have multiple sections, therefore reducing the number of adjuncts teaching the course. Thereby providing our students with the best instruction and best support in terms of advisement,” Dr. Ippolito said.

This did not work to the best of the ability due to the limited number of full time faculty vs. the abundance of  adjuncts. Instead, Dr. Ippolito focused on what the departments could do next and how the departments can be impactful to the change in course caps.

“The departments need to be able to participate and have an opportunity to discuss rationale or maybe work something else out,” Dr. Ippolito said.

Ippolito and the University Senate have been trying to get the Executive Directors and the Deans to try and let full time faculty into the discussion regarding the increase in course capacity.

All departments should be able to have a chance to come up with suggestions and alternatives to work out the current problem, Ippolito said.

Dr. David Joiner, a professor in the STEM field, stated that the argument before needing to increase the course caps was that it would take too much time. Changing as many as thirty classes was considered a burden. Joiner concluded that this observation was not a commitment to the process of what future revisions would have to go through.

Dr. Catherine Nicholson added another point. Back when Dr. Nicholson first started at Kean, she and her department were asked to revise up to 1000 courses. The curriculum process was managed at the time.

Nicholson, who has gone through the curriculum process experience proposed a solution.

“I would suggest that we could also manage, moving forward, an increased cap could actually be managed to go through a similar process.”

Jessica Adams, a professor in the Physical Education Recreation and Health, recalled a different time when she first started at Kean. She argued that back then, there was some time to look over the course caps and the documents corresponding to the ID 1225 course Issues in Contemporary Health. More time was given to her for the curriculum process.

According to Dr. Joiner, there was not a request for curriculum course cap changes. Dr. Ippolito responded to Dr. Joiner by saying that we would need more revisions and discussions.

As of right now, however, the full time faculty understands and knows that the best way to provide instruction and to better serve the students would be with smaller class size.

Dr. Fran Stavola-Daly, a professor in the Physical Education Recreation and Health department agreed with Ippolito and gave her own classes as an example.

“They do a lot of writing in my class. They have first drafts and at least 2nd drafts. You have courses that are 50 and 70 are multiple choice tests and if I do that, it serves no students.”

Ippolito agreed and said this was one of the reasons why the departments and full time faculty need to be a part of the conversation regarding the increase in course capacity.

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