After several rounds of email messaging yesterday, I finally had to admit to a student that the powers invested in me as Chair of the Art Department do not include the ability to increase the size of a classroom. No matter how desperately the student wants to take that class, all the seats are already full and I can't wave a magic wand to make the room extend into another dimension, however cool that might be.
Most of my duties as (temporary!) Chair of the Art Department have been both mild and interesting: I love observing creative people in the classroom, and so far the department hasn't been threatened with the curricular cuts happening elsewhere. Right now, though, students are scheduling their spring-semester classes and I suddenly face an inbox full of requests for waivers of prerequisites, course substitutions, and admission into courses that are already full.
The requests to be added to full courses are the easiest to deal with: classrooms are only so big, and a room that's already crowded with 18 students isn't going to welcome a 19th. In the English department it's not so difficult to shove an extra desk into a classroom, but art classes tend to require different types of works space--super-spiffy computers in Graphic Design courses, easels and paints or pencils in others. I've been in all those rooms and I've seen how cramped they can be, so I have no problem holding the line on course caps.
The requests for waivers and substitutions are more difficult, though, because I'm required to provide a written rationale for each one I approve, and I'm hard pressed, for instance, to explain why a painting course is an appropriate substitute for one focused on print-making. When I ask students why they want a waiver or substitution, their reasons not the type that will impress the Registrar's office: I don't like morning classes, I think I'll do better in this type of class, I don't want to take that other one. It's a whole lot of Bartlebys facing a brick wall and saying "I prefer not to," and I can't send that to the Registrar.
So this morning I came up with a solution: When a student asks for a waiver or substitution, I will ask the student to write a couple of sentences explaining why they're equipped to take the course without the prerequisite or why the course in question is an appropriate substitute for the required course--and the reasons have to refer to course content and skills acquired, not personal preferences. This may save me a little work but, more importantly, it will make the students think about the purpose of their education beyond personal preference.
The Bartlebys will always be with us, but maybe this will make a few of them think beyond the brick wall.
2 comments:
I very much like your solution of asking the students to write the first draft of the rationale. I've had many students try to plead and beg their way into already-full math classes over the years -- what always surprised me was how poorly these students did if the department actually let them in. They didn't have weaker backgrounds, and they usually had strong motivations (med school! MBA programs!) to work hard; but instead, they'd just kind of not keep up with assignments or not come to class.
I think it would have helped to have a small hurdle for them before the decision to enroll -- maybe they wouldn't have bothered (and so wouldn't have gotten into and then bombed the class), but maybe have putting some of their own skin in the game would have changed something in how they approached the class when they got in.
Yes, small hurdles can be very effective. Years ago I used to frequently get students begging to take a certain class as an independent study, but they often didn't have the skills needed to study independently. I cut down on the requests by requiring them to fill out a form justifying their need to take the class in terms of content knowledge and skills instead of just convenience. Just that one small hurdle was enough to deter the ones who would probably not have done well anyway.
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