Page 8 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 8, 1988 ACADEMICS Students cram in as classes overflow Counselors get personal BY KRISTINE LALONDE With hopes of changing the "you're just a number" feeling that many students have when choosing classes, the counseling department implemented several changes for en- tering first-year students last sum- mer. Both students and counselors have cited lack of personal attention as the biggest problem in counseling. General Counselor Philip Gor- man said, "We do see thousands of kids throughout the summer, so it is difficult to develop a rapport." LSA SENIOR Greg Brown said general counseling is "really overwhelming. They ask, 'Whyare you here?"' He said he was "kind of disappointed" with the counseling he received as a first-year student. Now the department is trying to give more personal attention to new students. For example, all incoming students received an intellectual cu- riosity questionnaire before their orientation session. A student's as- signed counselor reviewed the results along with the application essays. The department also implemented an additional counseling session during orientation. Formerly, an orientation student met once with a. counselor, and a second time in a group meeting to discuss classes. Now students meet with the coun- selor once to determine what inter- ests them, then a second time to choose classes. "I THINK THE changes are for the better. It will hopefully give the student the feeling that they have more service and support from the counselor," Counseling Director Charles Judge said. Counselors also give students a special course guide designed specifically for the first-year student. Judge said the counseling depart- ment will make similar changes for all students if it receives more fund- ing. Such changes, he said, would in- clude pre-screening by peer advisors to determine each student's needs and increased counselor time in the dorms. Judge said he wants students to feel they have one counselor who they can identify with. Additional personnel would help the department handle its more than 30,000 ap- pointments a year, as well as in- crease personal attention, he said. THE COUNSELING depart- ment includes general counseling and concentration counseling. The 30 to 35 general counselors help students who haven't yet chosen their majors. The 100 concentration counselors are professors in the student's chosen field. Although the department hears few concentration counseling com- plaints, not many incoming students will see a concentration counselor during their first year. Susan Gonzalez, an LSA senior, said, "When I was a freshman, I went to a general counselor, but I had a lot of questions they didn't have answers for. Once you go to someone in your major or graduate program they're the most helpful." LSA SENIOR Gordon Falk agreed. "I've found that there's a lot of bureaucracy involved and it's hard to get answers." He recalled an in- stance when general and concentra- tion counselors each referred him to the other division. "Stuff like that makes me think that it's not as ef- fective as it could be," he said. General Counselor David Ross, a professor of classical studies, said problems often occur because the University, unlike smaller schools, doesn't require students to see coun- selors frequently. Because students only are required to see a counselor during orientation time, Ross said, they have to be assertive enough to seek help on their own. BY ALYSSA LUSTIGMAN It's a hot, sticky day at the beginning of the term, and you're sitting in a stuffy classroom that resembles a packed concert more than a lecture hall. In addition to the students who can comfortably sit in the room are those lying on the floor, leaning on top of desks, and standing against the walls. Many are not registered, but are seeking to beg the professor for an override into the class. Is this education? TWENTY YEARS AGO, said Prof. Richard Porter, chair of the Economics Department, classes av- eraged about 25 to 30 students. They now average about 50. "Overcrowding of classrooms is a terrible problem," he said, adding that the situation is probably worse in the economics department than most others. "Big classes are no fun for the students or the teach- ers," Porter said. "They have turned a... pleasant occu- pation into an... unpleasant one." Porter said students "tend to disappear easily" in large classes and can skip out or lose themselves in the lecture hall. BUT SOME administrators don't mind LSA class sizes. LSA Associate Dean for Curriculum and Long- Range Planning Jack Meiland said, "There is some dif- ference in the sizes of classes, and there are some courses that are more popular than others, but there is no overcrowding problem." Some faculty say the problem is not overcrowding, but "underclassing" - that is, the size of the class- rooms are simply inadequate for a growing student body. "There are two separate problems," said June Howard, associate chair of the English Department. "Classes are not assigned to appropriately sized rooms, and there is a pressure of enrollments." "Classes aren't overcrowded, they are just in uncomfortable classrooms," she said, saying there is a "crisis in the quality of classrooms in LSA." JAMES CATHER, LSA associate dean for facilities, said the current renovation of LSA classes will give "better" space to the rooms. "The sizes of classes change throughout the years," he said. "It's easier to adapt the class size to the room than to actually change all the rooms." Cather said years of neglect in LSA classrooms have led to poor conditions today, but renovations and up- keep are in the works. The University must now ac- commodate 30,000 students where 30 years ago it only had 19,000, he said. "Even though a number of buildings have been put up in the past years, not many classrooms have been added," he said. Some administrators say classes may be crowded because of limited faculty. In the early '80s, budget cuts led to a decrease in the number of hired faculty members. The college has since tried to hire more qualified faculty, but fluctuating trends make it difficult to predict which departments will need more professors. "IN LSA, we are constantly trying to follow stu- dent interest as emphasis goes from one department to another. There is flexible funding for TAs to follow enrollment pressures, but it takes longer to place tenured faculty," said Associate Dean for Budget Plan- ning Carolyn Copeland. "We always try to make space for incoming fresh- men," she said. The budget office works with the counseling office to predict how many spaces are needed with each incoming class. The department often expands the number of discus- sion sections for a class it considers crowded. For ex- ample, Economics 201, which originally offered one lecture, now offers three. Some departments try to ease the crowds by creating larger lower-level and smaller upper-level classes. "INSTEAD OF having all large classes, some have 75, and some have only 25. For majors (classes in the 300-level or above), the classes are smaller," Copeland said. "In order to let faculty do that, you have to increase lower-level enrollment." The most popular majors for 1987 were English, Economics, Psychology, and Political Science Often, students rely on their professors for overrides into popular classes. "I think if you want a class badly enough, and stick it out long enough, you can get into anything," one LSA junior said. "What professor is going to kick you out if you attend all his or her lectures and discus- sions?" ~ ERIC WINNECKE, an LSA senior, said CRISP waitlists are usually worthless since seniors get prior- ity of classes anyway. "After that, it's just a matter of luck," he said. But while students are "scandalized" by the thought of being closed out of classes they want, they also complain when the classes get too big, Howard said. Porter said the classroom size sets limits which prevent classes from spreading out. He said he usually tries to let seniors in, but otherwise limits the number of overrides he gives out. What's the appropriate number of students for a comfortable class? "IT DEPENDS on the class," Howard said. "Some undergraduate classes should be no bigger than 16, while some are effective at a large size, like 200." She said some classes, such as the core classes re- quired for English majors, are trying to use larger classes effectively. 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