RESOLUTION: Creating an Ad Hoc Committee to Review Class Sizes and Enrollment Caps
(Cosponsored by Senators John Cohill, Heather Doty, Vickie Fedele, Carla Guerrón Montero, Amy Hagstrom, Arild Hestvik, Pia Inguito, Rusty Lee, Bill Lewis, Ryan Moore, John Morgan, Jim Morrison, Victor Perez, Leslie Reidel, and Jonathan Russ)
WHEREAS, increasing course enrollment caps and student enrollments beyond the published course enrollment caps has become a recurring problem, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, and
WHEREAS, increasing class sizes can adversely affect educational excellence, student learning, and course delivery, and
WHEREAS, increased class sizes can increase inequities for both students and faculty within and across departments, and
WHEREAS, upper limits on class sizes are not explicitly considered in the Faculty Handbook, and
WHEREAS, neither departmental bylaws nor departmental workload documents clearly and consistently address class sizes, be it therefore
RESOLVED that an ad hoc committee be created to review:
- current departmental policies, documents, and practices across colleges and departments to determine how course enrollments are assessed, and
- changes in and distribution of enrollment caps during the last three years,
and be it further
RESOLVED that this ad hoc committee should be comprised of volunteers selected by Committee on Committees and Nominations (COCAN), and be composed of both Continuing Track faculty and Tenure Track faculty from multiple colleges and representatives of the Student Government Association and Graduate Student Government, and be it further
RESOLVED that this ad hoc committee should be created and should convene before the end of the Spring 2021 semester and report its findings in a public report to the University Faculty Senate by the end of the Fall 2021 semester, and be it further
RESOLVED that this ad hoc committee be charged with developing actionable items for consideration by the full University Faculty Senate.
