This time of year I find myself obsessively performing a little private dance that's part pep rally, part prayer: eight or ten or fifty times a day I click on the link to the fall course schedules to see how many students have registered for courses in my department. I cheer on the class that's close to the goal--come on, just a few more, you can do it! And I utter silent prayers for rising numbers in some others, knowing that low enrollments may result in cancellation.
I'm an equal-opportunity cheerleader, although I may put a little more energy into my pleas for upper-level literature courses. I want that little 5 to turn to a 6 or 7 or 8 even if it's not my course, because if any of our upper-level courses get cancelled, our students will have trouble completing the English major. We're responding to the budget crisis by running an extremely lean slate of courses, but it really can't get any leaner without endangering the viability of the major.
And so I sit in my office trying to focus on preparing tomorrow's classes but I keep stopping to click on that link to see whether the numbers have changed. Six students? Let's push that to 8 or 10! Do I hear 12? Sold!
Registration only started on Monday so we have plenty of time, or so I keep telling myself. Still, I look at those upper-level literature classes and I suspect no first-year students are likely to enroll, so that just leaves the sophomores to boost the numbers. I'm counting on the sophomore class. Don't fail me now, sophomores! Sign up for a literature class today!
Please don't make me put on that little cheerleader skirt.
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