May 1998 CLAS notes

Although much of the talk around the College recently has been focused on the computer policy and how it will impact faculty and students in the Fall (this issue devotes quite a bit of space to that topic), another issue looms large in our immediate future: enrollment pressure. "We have this huge mass beginning to move through the institution that will have an impact at all levels," says CLAS Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs Elizabeth Langland (at right).

Of course, the University has been growing steadily for some time, but the increase this year is more significant for several reasons: "In past years," Langland says, "there has been a cycling back and forth between admitting a large class and then a slightly smaller class--things haven't really ever stabilized, but at least it's kept the upper and lower divisions about the same size."

Last year was a record year for new freshman, and although this yearwill be slightly smaller, it's still the second largest class UF has ever admitted. In fact, our numbers (in terms of actual bodies served) will show an increase of nearly 1,000 because, as Langland explains, we're retaining more students due to tracking.

Since students are now required to declare their majors and enter a college from day one, official figures indicate that CLAS has experienced a decrease in total number of students. But that's only because we used to be the holding category for students in all colleges. The number of real Arts and Sciences majors is growing. And, because we teach most UF General Education courses, we will continue to be responsible for significant increases in student credit hours. "If we have 1,000 extra bodies taking an average of 13 semester hours, you can figure how many additional courses we suddenly need," says Langland, "especially in subjects like chemistry, physics, English and math. CLAS is the major player in enrollment management."

So how, exactly, will larger numbers affect the College? Langland says that, predictably, the basic sciences, mathematics, and English will tend to get the biggest crunch at the lower division. To handle this crunch, Langland studies the new enrollment figures and approaches department chairs about opening new sections; chairs then request funds to hire additional teaching assistants to cover the added sections, and Langland negotiates funding with the Provost. "The Provost will approve a onetime increase," she says, meaning that once those new funds are appropriated in the lump-sum College budget, it's the responsibility of the Dean and the chairs from that year forward to ensure the funds get to where they're needed.

But increased enrollments lead to other situations that are more complicated to foresee accurately and/or remedy quickly. "For example, Zoology is currently facing a situation whose consequences are unpredictable," Langland says. "In the past, pre-meds were assigned microbiology majors. This year approximately 800 freshmen pre-med students will be registered as zoology majors. The Department, which currently has 250 majors, will suddenly have 1050 majors. Now, the vast majority will switch to other majors by the end of their freshman year. But if even 1/5 of those 800 new students stay, they will almost double the department's junior and senior majors! And the department currently doesn't have the faculty to teach major courses to this many students."

Enrollment pressures translate into pressure on every level of college personnel: hiring, faculty lines, grad student appointments--even the tenure process. Langland offers an example in one of our growing CLAS Centers: "Criminology, with its huge enrollment pressure, needs all of its faculty teaching full-time in the Center. Many of the new hires, who must earn tenure in a department, would understandably like to have a bigger teaching presence in their home departments. Yet despite an increased number of faculty, they're all badly needed to teach criminology courses...it's a tough position to be in. Increased enrollments impact faculty and TAs at every level."

     For her part, Langland will be glued to the enrollment reports most of the summer (at least until Joe Glover takes over her position on July 1). "Weekly reports from the registrar's office show how many students tried to get a course, how many didn't get in, maximum enrollments, current enrollments, how many seats are left, how many seats are reserved and how many were enrolled last year," she explains. "We look at these every week...box after box. I watch to see how many seats we need, what things looked like last year, what looks bad, what's going to get hit. We try to anticipate everything."

All this effort pays off in terms of students' accessibility to their required courses. "Students certainly aren't having any trouble getting their courses, by and large," Langland says. "For them, life is utterly different than it was... remember the old long lines? Now they're guaranteed their tracked courses--it's amazing that we can do this at a huge institution like UF. It's an incredible deal for the students."

Despite its "efficiency," tracking has its share of problems, as Langland readily admits: "I have to confess, I worry that tracking is antithetical to intellectual exploration. Tracking provides the particular courses students need to graduate in timely fashion. It might be argued that tracking doesn't necessarily give you an education; it gives you a degree, if I may put it that way."

Applications for admission to UF continue to multiply every year, and increased enrollment will be a reality for CLAS and UF for years to come, tracking or no tracking. The larger applicant pool does have some advantages in that Admissions has a bigger portion of top-notch students to choose from. Says Langland: "Many of the brightest students in Florida look at UF, discover that we have an excellent honors program, and recognize that it costs $100,000 to go to Duke for four years. Florida looks pretty good."