I am going into my fourth year of teaching at the community college level, and each semester the tension in the weeks leading up to the first day of classes is ratcheted up more and more. So much so that it now spills into the first two weeks of classes. Because of budget cuts and reduced class offerings, there simply are not enough seats for all the students who need classes.
Back in August at CCC, many more students were sitting in my classroom than were enrolled. Imagine walking into a classroom with 40 or so chairs, every one is filled and yet people are still trickling into the classroom for most of the class period hoping to add. Several times class was disrupted because someone opened the door an hour in and asked if there was room in the class. The cap is 30 students, and my roster was full, plus there were 10 people on the waiting list. I had been fielding emails from students for most of the summer who wanted to add the class. Most of the students were polite in their requests, a few were a bit more demanding.
The first day of class becomes a game of sharing standard lines. They say:
"By the end of the semester a bunch of people will have dropped."
"I really need this class."
"Without this class I can't transfer/graduate."
"I won't miss a class; I'm a great student."
My responses include:
"If I add more students than my limit I could get in trouble with my department, or fired."
"I understand, the situation sucks all the way around. This is happening to too many students."
"I can't give feedback on that many papers each week."
"Pedagogically speaking, there should only be 20 students enrolled for everyone to be able to pass."
"I was told if I add more students, the powers that be might very well cut more sections."
In the past there have been some conversations that became somewhat heated because I refused to add students and over-load the class. That led to students complaining to the dean and head of the department about me not allowing them to add an already full class. Yes, the administration backed me.
This semester was different. There was less anger and much more angst. One student in my night class offered to pay me $10 each week if I added him (I refused). Another in the day class tried to bribe anyone with $40 if they dropped the class so he could add. He upped the ante to $60, but there were no takers and I wouldn't support the transaction anyway. Some stayed after class and cried as they related their particular stories as to why they weren't able to register during open enrollment. Some returned for several days hoping that even one person would drop the class. One young woman stopped me in the hallway outside my office and began crying as she told me how not getting into my class would effect her educational goals.
Keep in mind that I am only relating the stories of the students who already live in economically depressed areas. Poor students are offering bribes. Poverty stricken students are desperately trying to claw their way out and are using education as a tool to improve their lives. I went to the dean to suggest the necessity of adding more classes only to find out that the school is already running in the red and the VP is asking the school to cut more sections.
Why don't I add them, you ask? Because if I took all the students who wanted to add, I would have more than 150 papers to grade and give feedback on every week. At an average of 15 minutes per paper, that is 37.5 hours each week (and that assumes that there is only 1 assignment per class per week) of just grading. That leaves no time for lesson planning, or teaching. My effectiveness as an instructor would diminish dramatically. It ultimately wouldn't matter if students added my class or not, they wouldn't learn what they need to move on. I would be undermining their education and my career all at once.
Maybe I'm too empathetic, but saying no over and over again is very difficult. Dealing with their anguish and frustration is traumatizing.
I thought the coast was clear in week three, until a student showed up at the end of one class asking if I would add her. I started to offer a standard line about not being allowed to have too many students, and she told me that "the head guy" sent her over to talk to me. When I asked for clarification about the name of this "head guy" she copped an attitude and stormed out. *sigh*
Week four begins tomorrow and I'm hoping I can spend my energy just teaching.
4 comments:
This sounds incredibly frustrating. Can you type up a single sheet of paper with "add guidelines" on it that you can hand out (and the last line refers them to the department chair or whomever makes the decisions about how many classes to offer)?
You don't have to take on the role of the bad guy in this scenario. If the registration process is computerized (including the wait list), then it's clearly a first-come, first-served deal that takes you out of the middle man seat.
If nothing else, maybe have some version of the following printed up and posted on the wall: "Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine."
Good luck!
It is frustrating, and more so when I know that students have very little choice here.
My classes are overfull before the 1st day of priority registration is over, so we aren't usually talking about lack of planning on their part,simply a lack of enough sections of the classes they need. And the state is implementing new rules that negatively effect too many students who already struggling.
Thanks for the good thoughts, though.
Oh I know how this feels :( I know I've been in those kids shoes, and I know you genuinely feel sad about not letting them in. It's hard not to. It's a bad situation all around. I think about you all the time, and I hope everything gets a little easier! I miss you! :)
Thank you Wendy. I miss you too!
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