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Despite
many full classes, as of last Friday, 35,040
seats were still available for enrollment
in over 2,800 courses. Tracey Roman/Daily
Forty-Niner
Class
seats available despite high enrollment
By
Jamie Rowe
Daily Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
While
many students this semester feel they will
not be able to get into the classes they
need to graduate, Cal State Long Beach is
trying its best to give them what they need.
"The
university has invested several millions
of dollars of its savings to maintain the
class levels," said Vice Provost, David
Dowell. This money is being used to fill
the gap of what the state gives the school
and what students pay. Students should expect
to have roughly the same number of classes
each semester, although this year the number
will be down slightly. However, there should
be no change in access to classes. The drop
in numbers comes from the reduction in general
education classes because fewer freshmen
were admitted this year.
Dowell
said that there will always be bottlenecks,
but the classes are not always filled. "On
average, each class on campus is about 80
percent full, but some sections may be at
20 percent or over 100 percent," he
said.
Linda
Sumpter, the Director of Enrollment and
Facilities in Academic Planning said, "We
have 2,800 courses and 35,040 empty seats
in the undergraduate classes."
Undersubscribed
classes are cancelled due to lack of enrollment.
The individual colleges are pressed to cut
these low enrollment sections to help save
money. However, the money that is saved
can be used at another time for classes
that are more in demand.
Some
classes fill up more than others based on
students' personal preferences and time
restraints. According to a recent open seat
report, Tuesday and Thursday classes have
the most open seats at 8,337, with 2 p.m.
classes leading the way at 1,190 open seats.
"The
challenge is trying to figure out which
classes students will want in respect to
the budget and rooms we have available,"
said Dowell. Sumpter said, "The chair
of each department schedules classes based
on the budget and students profiles including
incoming freshman and those majoring in
their department." Both understand
that students have work and other things
in their personal lives that they need to
schedule around.
Dowell
said the S.O.A.R. program, especially this
year, tries to get the vast majority of
incoming freshman into the Monday, Wednesday
and Friday classes to allow the sophomores,
juniors and seniors to get more classes
at the times and days they prefer.
Sumpter
suggests going to a department adviser to
potentially substitute one class for another.
"An adviser will help you get a full
schedule to get your degree," she said.
She also recommends taking a class at a
less preferable time.
CSULB
President Maxson said the university's goal
is to do the best it can to get students
what they need. With 34,000 students, it
is not always easy to get classes when students
want. "Every semester our goal is to
try to make sure students get their classes
and do the best we can to get those classes
when they want," Maxson said. "We
spent hours in meetings to achieve this
goal."
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