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Re: 18weekvs16weeksemester



A schedule crunch occurred at UCSC (back in the 80's) because of increased
enrollment, we, not happily, solved it by instituting night labs -- still there
for lower div. For at least one semester, I volunteered to open and TA the
advanced lab on saturdays. It was well attended, both by those who had to,
because of schedule conflict, and those who needed additional time.

bc


Joel Rauber wrote:

Michael wrote in two parts:


It is my goal to "cover" most chapters of a calculus-based physics text
(Tipler, Halliday, etc.), up to but not including modern physics
(because we
have a separate modern physics course). I think you have to fly
through the
material to do this in 120 lectures, regardless of whether these lectures
are packed into semesters or quarters or whatever. I used to have 120
lectures (4 per week times 30 weeks) and for two years now I have had 112
lectures (4 per week times 28 weeks). In my opinion this cannot be done
unless I am resolved to have a high failure rate and an angry class. I
don't see how anybody could get by with 84 lectures (3 per week times 28
weeks). But I acknowledge the pressure is there to do this... partly from
administration and partly from students.

Yup, we are trying to do achieve your goal in 82-84 "lecture" sessions.
Needless to say, we are unsuccessful and you are right we have a high
failure rate (glossed over by grade inflation, and other methods of
legerdemain) and angry classes, and faculty who wonder what in the world
they are to do.

At Bluffton College I think our 4 and 5-hour science and math courses are
secure, and I hope our semester length will not be further reduced. But I
think the battle could leap back to life at any time. It's amazing how
strongly some people want to "simplify" things by trying to make
everything
fit into nice neat packages. The daily schedule, calculation of teaching
loads, student schedules, meeting times, etc. would be easier if every
course met three times a week (and I guess we would just have to do away
with labs). At the present, those who would push for further erosion our
educational system are being held at bay.

Amen!!

Another similar battle that is brewing is in regard to overall requirements
for graduation. Currently our major requires 128 semester credits and we
have some Engineering majors that require 135 credits. Our board of regents
are excercising a strong push to require that all majors be done in 120
credits (with the short semesters of course). This is despite a new
increased credits required in the core. Its not clear what they want done
with our Pharm. degree program which is accredited as a five year program, I
think they will get special dispensation.
Joel Rauber
Joel_Rauber@sdstate.edu