You can study this, or that.
I registered for my Fall ‘08 classes a few weeks ago and, suffice to say, I’m not going to be taking all the classes I wish I was. It seems as though all the classes I was so looking forward too, classes required by my major, are only offered on alternating semesters, the Fall semester not being one of them. This was only compounded by my relatively late registration appointment (upperclassmen get to register first), and only looking for classes I could schedule into a 30+ hour work week.
Over on the Adventures in Ethics and Science Blog, Dr. Free-Ride gives an academic perspective on ‘Why it’s so hard to get that course you need.’
Maybe the problem is that faculty don’t teach enough classes in a particular semester? On paper it might look that way, but students may not be aware of the other requirements of our job (like scholarly output and committee work). These other requirements eat up time — and they make a difference as far as how we are evaluated for retention, tenure and promotion. Faculty who devoted themselves entirely to teaching to the exclusion of these other activities wouldn’t get to stay in the teaching pool for very long … at which point, it might be a while before their departments hired someone else with the appropriate expertise to take on the courses these altruists taught.
Until we get to a stage in our budgetary thinking where smaller classes are tolerated, there are going to be real constraints on how often required classes can be offered.
Dr. Free-Ride teaches philosophy at San Jose State U., and I can attest that the same budgetary concerns are on the minds of many faculty and students at CSU, Chico as well. The state’s budget for higher education is being renegotiated this summer, and cuts loom high.
That doesn’t explain why the classes I want to take are unavailable though. I’m special.