By Anna Hansen
Dec. 19, 2020
Edgewood College has canceled 17 low-enrolled course offerings for the spring 2021 semester. The cancellations stem from a top-down mandate changing Edgewood’s student-to-faculty ratio from 8-to-1 to 15-to-1.
Edgewood College President Andrew Manion said this change is routine for the college. “The practice of canceling low-enrolled sections is not new; we have been doing it every semester for years,” said Manion in a Dec. 18 email to OTE. “Every institution of higher learning does this.”
“In order to be affordable, we need to always look for ways to be more efficient,” said Manion in a Dec. 10 email to the Edgewood community. “One of the ways we seek this efficiency is by working with the faculty to regularly monitor course enrollments so that we offer the right number of sections of the right courses at the right time for students to make steady progress toward their educational goals.”
These changes affected 40 students in total — many of whom, according to Manion, have already been placed into different class sections to meet their needs.
But many affected students, said Student Senate President Shawn Padley, were scrambling to piece together their schedules. Padley said that Senate members found the lack of student input on the cancellations “disturbing.”
“There simply has not been enough communication with students about this, and now many of us are scrambling and panicking over our schedules for next semester,” Student Senate members wrote in a letter sent to Manion on Dec. 3 upon learning of the changes to the student-to-faculty ratio.
One anonymous student detailed how this decision affected her. “A class that is required for my major was canceled. I am on track to graduate this spring but need that course to fulfill requirements for my major,” she said. “After I got the email notifying me of the cancellation, I emailed my advisor to ask about the plan. My advisor assured me that we will make a plan for me to graduate on time, but I am concerned that I will be missing out on a key part of the material for my major without taking this course.”
Senate members met with Manion and his cabinet the week of Dec. 7 to discuss these concerns.
Padley said that the meeting with Manion’s cabinet did not bring about any other solutions to the mandated changes, which Edgewood hadn’t initially planned on informing students about, according to Padley.
“[The administration] hadn’t planned to inform the student body about the change from an 8-:1 ratio to a 15-:1 ratio; it wasn’t until we pointed out that students were scrambling that they agreed to send out a communication,” said Padley.
In their letter, Senate members cited timing as a concern since; many students have already had their advising meetings and scheduled their classes for the spring semester.
The letter also cites issues such as Edgewood’s small size, which the Senate said may make it difficult for students to get into the classes they need to fulfill their graduation requirements. Students on track to graduate who are affected by the cancellations have the option for certain requirements to be waived, but Student Senate said that “[offering the waivers] has the consequence of these students missing out on a crucial piece of their education, and this concerns us all.”
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