THE UNIVERSITY is lovely this time of year -- leaves are changing, midterms are over and finals are a month away. It's hard to believe that in a few short weeks, it will be time for students to register and faculty to plan spring classes. That prospect is once again highlighting one of the less pleasant realities of the College of Arts & Sciences -- the growing imbalance in the supply and demand for courses.
This serious problem is the result of the fact that the student population in the College is growing larger each year while faculty hiring remains relatively static. In economic parlance, too many students are chasing too few goods in the form of desired classes.
I teach in the department of government and foreign affairs, which is blessed with the largest number of majors in the College, but we're having difficulty meeting vocal student demand for more courses and sections. My own waiting lists for fall classes were higher than at any time in the past, and many colleagues have reported similarly alarming situations. I turned nearly 100 students away because of lack of space in all courses. The prospects for spring and beyond are even worse. Colleagues in other departments have experienced similar problems, and complaints about course and section offerings are clearly audible in the College.
Students fortunate enough to be attending the University -- and who are paying tuition and fees to do so -- deserve to gain entry into courses, especially those essential to their program of study. The University justly prides itself on the exceptional quality of its undergraduate instruction and recruits students on this basis. It is frustrating to have to close the door to so many passionate and eager young minds.
There are two reasons why students are turned away from classes, both of them economic. First, the College does not have the resources to hire significant numbers of new faculty. While Darden expands and the stadium has its new lights, the College is underfunded for its needs.
Colleagues on North Grounds express desire for their students and programs to be, in the recent words of the dean of the Darden School, "the best in the world." No argument, but doesn't the College deserve the same? The vast majority of University students are in the College and merit the same attention and funding as the smaller number in our outstanding professional schools.
Ironically, the schools that dominate University fundraising efforts recruit from that undergraduate population, currently under-served in the classroom. Business leaders in Virginia complain that recent graduates are not as well-trained or prepared as in the past. Moreover, the University risks losing students to competitors if gaining entry into classes becomes a Herculean effort and the increasing student-to-faculty ratio makes it more difficult for students to get to know the professors who will be vital to guiding their careers.
The second reason for the enrollment crunch is the declining number of graduate teaching assistants -- who enable professors to manage and care for larger numbers of students -- in most departments. The academic job market in the humanities has been depressed throughout the 1990s and as a result, many departments have cut graduate enrollment. This is an ethical and necessary choice that I support, yet it has led to smaller numbers of discussion sections in larger courses. It is unlikely that an increase in graduate enrollment will -- or should -- occur in the near future.
So, as Lenin put it, "What is to be done?" All levels of University management have a responsibility to address this problem and only through collective action can it be solved. I offer the following suggestions.
At the University level, devote a higher percentage of the University budget to hiring faculty within the College. Alumni dollars flow liberally to the athletic program, the Darden and Commerce schools and the Law School, all programs whose graduates enjoy high salaries. Due largely to disparities in alumni income, the College lags behind these other organs of the University in private fundraising efforts. For this reason, less University money should flow to the schools awash in private capital and every effort should be made to earmark general funds for classroom needs in the College. Additionally, a larger percentage of University fundraising should be specifically targeted toward increasing College faculty.
At the College level, emphasize teaching in hiring and promotion decisions. If the undergraduate population is increasing, the graduate TA cohort decreasing, and faculty hiring static, the need for professors to teach more is -- in my view -- self-evident. In practical terms, current tenure and hiring decisions tend to revolve almost exclusively around research and publication. While I am a resolute advocate of both, teaching needs to be given much more weight than it currently enjoys in order to recruit competent faculty who meet our classroom needs and to retain those who already do. Tying clear rewards -- such as tenure and salary -- to classroom performance would encourage professors to get to know students better, become stronger teachers, and to meet the demand for courses creatively through such measures as independent studies.
Currently, these teacher characteristics go unrewarded and largely unnoticed. In hiring and promotion, emphasizing an even distribution of teaching and research, as well as University and community service, should be a goal of the College. This would create better teachers and scholars as well as help meet the University's needs and the President's objective of community outreach.
At the departmental level, meet the demand for key courses first. While all professors enjoy teaching specialized courses in their area of research and should be given the chance to do so, staple courses such as area or distribution classes required for majors and minors should be given priority. As a rule, ensuring that required core classes are offered regularly should be uppermost in scheduling decisions.
Classroom instruction remains the lifeblood of the University, yet it seldom receives the attention it deserves. Historically, the University has enjoyed an enviable reputation for superior instruction of its students. But unless something is done to address striking inconsistencies in the supply and demand of courses, the gap will become worse as more students enter the University. Something to think about as those course offering guides are being printed.
(James R. Sofka is a government and foreign affairs professor.)
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