Growing pains

Last week, we received a Letter to the Editor concerning the Registrar and some of their processes. I’d like to add my thoughts on the subject to bring attention to some issues that I’ve heard from others and experienced myself.
One of the complaints in the Letter is that classrooms are changed too close to the time of the first class, making it hard to keep track unless you check the website consistently. I don’t see this as a huge problem at all. Sure, it can make things a little confusing, but is it really that hard to check the website before going to class? I would much rather have the classroom switched to better accommodate the professor and the students than be in a situation like I was in this past week.
In one of the required, upper-level courses of my major, over 60 students were forced to squeeze into a classroom meant for around 45 students. Students had to bring in desks from another classroom in order to sit. This also happened, although to a lesser extent, in another of my courses. In the past, I have heard horror stories of students having to sit on the floor because too many students were allowed to register.
However, one of the main problems is not that of booking a room too small, but of another issue entirely. Take the first course that I mentioned above, for example. Three different sections of the course are being offered simultaneously and with the same professor (two undergraduate and one graduate). As our professor realized, the reason we were given that room is because only one of the undergraduate sections was used when assigning an appropriate room based on class size.
I can understand a department’s reasoning for offering a class in this way. Instead of being wasteful and using a classroom and a professor for only a handful of students, it’s more efficient to combine the sections. This makes sense. I’ve taken courses in the past where this wasn’t a problem. But this clearly was not the case with over 60 students taking the course. I must admit that as a senior, I was disappointed to discover that one of my last core courses is almost the size of a class I took as a freshman. Having taken classes ranging in size from 8 to 80 students, I can attest that class size makes a big difference in a student’s learning experience. Obviously, every course can’t be small, but I would hope that this is the first priority in scheduling courses.
I commend our leadership for expanding and growing our presence as a technical university. I trust that the proposed buildings and future plans will allow us to achieve these goals. I just hope that in the meantime, current students don’t have to suffer along with the growing pains of our campus.