More than 3,100 freshmen are expected to hit the campus on Monday morning as the fall semesters launches into full swing. Campus administrators believe this will be one of the largest freshman class ever, although numbers won’t be final until mid-September.
A rapid response team composed of deans, department chairs, advisors and others at the institution is working to make sure everything is ready.
“We are exploring every option available to us to satisfy demand,” according to Associate Provost Wynn Goering. In some cases, class sizes have been increased; in others, new sections have been added.
More graduate assistants have been assigned to the largest classes, additional part-time instructors have been hired, and some full-time faculty members have taken on overloads.
The university is experimenting with new approaches to scheduling as well. This is the first year that some biology laboratory classes will be offered on Saturday mornings. The biology department is juggling more than 60 lab sections a week and scheduling for the lab time is tight.
Several departments have had to hire additional part-time faculty to meet the demand, and student advisors across campus are meeting to try to better coordinate advisement so that students are able to schedule the classes they must have as smoothly as possible.
Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627