Jumbo Classes of up to 300 To Be Tested in Fall

By Davaughnia Wilson

Kean University prides itself on small class sizes and a hands-on learning experience for students, all of which might change in the Fall 2022 semester as the university begins testing a ‘jumbo’ class system with up to 300 students enrolled in a single lecture class. 

This change appears to follow the university’s goal to reach R2 Carnegie status as a research university. Detractors say the move is a way to free up money within academic affairs so it can allocate those funds to support its quest for R2 Carnegie status. 

Dr. Craig Donovan, University Senate chairperson, said, “So what the Provost is proposing, I think, from what I heard, is that there would be approximately 17 or 18 large jumbo classes in selected introductory courses these would have between 100 and 300 students in them.” 

Reached by email, Dr. David Bridsell, the university’s provost, deferred to the university relations office but shared that conversations surrounding the jumbo class system is still in its preliminary stages and that they have not concluded exactly how the system would work. 

“I’d be happy to sit down with you to talk about ways we’re tackling both the substance of the curriculum and the way that it is delivered, but these conversations are still preliminary,” Birdsell said. “We haven’t yet fully populated the committees that will be involved in the discussions, much less come to any conclusions. I suspect we’d be able to put more flesh on the bones if we were to schedule a conversation for sometime next month.”

Birdsell addressed the university senate on March 22 where he said that beyond financial advantages, large lecture halls can improve the quality of instruction and allow the university to recruit doctoral students who may become future academic leaders. 

He told the senate that he analyzed course evaluations and found class experiences were mixed. Some students said they had a great experience in a course while others said they had “a really crumby class.” He added that “star lecturers” will teach the jumbo classes, giving everyone a great class experience. 

Birdsell said the North Avenue Academic Building can hold up to 500 students, however, no more than 300 students will be enrolled in each jumbo class. 

In an official statement, Margaret McCorry, associate vice president for University Relations, said, “At Kean University, we are always exploring the best pedagogical approaches to provide an optimal learning environment and ensure a world-class education for our students. That work is ongoing as we prepare for the Fall 2022 semester.”

According to James Castiglione, president of the Kean Federation of Teachers (KFT), and associate professor of physics, Birdsell met with the University Senate as well as with the faculty in the six undergraduate colleges across the university and demonstrated his interest in establishing jumbo classes. 

The constitution of the University Senate indicates that they communicate recommendations on academic matters, which included documents such as course outlines, methods of instruction, the description of the classes, and also class sizes. 

The University Senate ultimately determines what would be the appropriate class size for different courses and disciplines. For the university to adopt this change and move forward with ‘jumbo’ classes, they would have to sit down with the University Senate and discuss these changes while consulting the existing curriculum process.

Donovan said, however, that the Senate was not a part of the discussion although it is the academic authority when it comes to class size and other issues.  

“Traditionally, we believe, and there is a procedural manual that says, if you’re going to change something on that course outline, anything on that course outline including the course cap, has to go through a curriculum process in the department, the college, and the Senate,” Donovan said. 

Donovan said how these classes would work, who will be teaching them, and how they would be scheduled were not discussed with the Senate. 

Castiglione said his understanding is that a pilot program will run in the Fall 2022 semester to evaluate what worked and what didn’t. Based on the feedback, they will then make modifications going forward. He said that the specific class size has not been finalized. 

He said the administration is considering the jumbo classes in programs where there are a large number of majors and a large number of sections. More specifically, introductory classes such as those in the humanities and social science departments and in the business college. He added that the Provost voiced at the Senate meeting, interest in assigning graduate teaching assistants to the jumbo classes.

These courses would be taught by a faculty member and graduate assistants would then teach smaller discussion sections that would accompany the large lectures. 

According to Donovan, the material covered in these large lecture classes would be the same, they would remain a three-credit course and they would be allotted the same amount of hours for weekly instruction. The question of how much of those three hours would be allotted to large lectures and how much would go to the small discussion sections is still not clear. 

The number of students in each discussion section would be decided based on the number of students enrolled in each so-called jumbo class. 

Donovan explained that to help cover the cost of moving to an R2 university, the faculty, and professors need “significant amounts of research to have time to do that research.”

“So instead of three instructors each teaching 30 students, or five instructors teaching 20 students, you would have one instructor teaching 100 students or 200 students or 300 students and so you would have a larger number of sections covered by one instructor and that would be, and is, more cost-effective,” Donovan said.

Castiglione explained that the role of the KFT is to negotiate how much compensation each faculty member gets for classes of a particular size. He explained that the more students enrolled in each class would result in the instructors doing a lot more work and so in the union’s view this raises the level of compensation each instructor receives. 

“The role of the union is to represent the interests of all members of the bargaining unit and negotiate overall terms and conditions of employment for our members and then enforce the contractual documents that result from those negotiations,” Castiglione said. 

The Student Government Association is an ex officio member of the Senate and is entitled to be present and speak at its meetings, Donovan said.  

Jason Pleitez, Student Government Association president, said that he is unsure if a student currently sits in on these meetings and that he is working on having a student sit in on future meetings on behalf of the student body. This will ultimately ensure that students are aware of the changes that are being made and those that are being discussed. 

Tamaya Upchurch, a senior majoring in Criminal Justice, said that she prefers a small classroom setting because it allows her to participate and form relationships with professors.

In large lecture halls, Upchurch said the professors are lecturing and not interacting with the students. She added since there are so many students in a lecture hall, it is not easy to meet with the professor after class.  

Upchurch is a transfer student from the University of Connecticut Waterbury Campus where she was in a large psychology lecture class of 60 students and believes that is why she failed the course. 

“I wasn’t participating, I wasn’t intrigued and I wasn’t paying attention as much as I was in my smaller classrooms,” she said. “… If I failed in a lecture hall of 60 I am really gonna fail in a lecture hall of 300.”

She explained that she came to Kean because of the small classrooms and because of the ratio between teachers and students.

 “If Kean was what it’s going to be in the future, then I would’ve never chosen Kean,” Upchurch said.

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