Collegiate Times

Thandiwe Ogbanna/Collegiate Times

“Large class sizes aren’t a solution to the problem.”

Sue Murrmann, a professor in the HTM department, agrees.

“When you have lower numbers of students in class you have more time to interact with individuals in the class,” she said. “When the class sizes increase you can’t engage in that kind of discussion.”

Perdue, who will be teaching four or even five classes this semester, stressed the department would ensure students would graduate as promised.

“I am going to get these kids out of here. I’m going to make it happen,” Perdue said.

“It is frustrating to see these kinds of challenges that we are going through right now,” Wubah said.

Perdue indicated the situation has been resolved for the upcoming semester. The same cannot be said for next year.

“If they keep cutting our budget, we will get to the point where we have no options,” Wubah said.

The cuts and high enrollment are also affecting the morale of faculty members, who have received no pay raises for the past two years.

“Interaction with students is personally satisfying,” Murrmann said. “As the numbers of students go up, you can’t interact with them, so it isn’t as personally satisfying. Outside of the class I have more interaction with students, there are more students to talk to, so it also increases satisfaction. There is a trade off.”

HTM professors have switched some graduate and undergraduate sections and increased enrollment in their classes.

“In the past I had 30 to 35 students, and now I have somewhere between 50 students,” Murrmann said.

Faculty members are also exploring the option of the “pathways” plan. When students attend freshman orientation, they will set up a schedule that maps out the classes that will be taken during their college career, with the hope that the department will be able to predict the number of seats needed for students ahead of time, Wubah said.

“Unless we add some faculty members, the problem is not going away,” Perdue said. “We are working on a long term solution, but do not yet have a definitive plan.”

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