Student petitions VCU for more classes, less construction

Mark Robinson
Assistant News Editor

A VCU student is circulating a petition that says the university should offer more classes for students instead of focusing on construction and expansion.

Brittiny Wolfe, a junior health sciences major at VCU, started the petition last Friday after hearing about new construction projects VCU has in the works. She posted the petition on Facebook and sent out mass emails to students in her current and previous courses.

In its first three days, 98 students signed the petition. After the first week, Wolfe has 140 signatures, 60 shy of her initial goal of 200.

Wolfe encouraged supporters of the petition to submit specific courses they had trouble enrolling in for spring 2012 so she could submit a list along with the petition to Reuben Rodriguez, associate vice provost and dean of students at VCU.

So far, she has compiled a list of 35 classes across the sociology, mass communications, health, physical education and exercise science, psychology, social work and environmental science departments, respectively.

“Students now have to fight to get into their classes, and I feel like unless we as students collectively say, ‘Hey, you need to give this issue more attention. We deserve to graduate on time,’ then the issue is just going to get brushed aside,” Wolfe said.

Chief among Wolfe’s concerns is the likelihood that students who can’t get into their core courses during the fall or spring semesters might not graduate in four years. This possibility burdens students financially in the long run, Wolfe said.

“Even if there were classes offered at inconvenient times, if there was enough of them, then it would just be an individual student’s problem (if they couldn’t enroll), but this isn’t just my problem or your problem. It’s affecting every single major here,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe said she thinks hiring faculty and staff is more important than continuing the expansion of the Monroe Park Campus, a point that she specifically states in the petition, which reads: “Students should be the first and foremost priority (for the university), not campus aesthetics.”

Rodriguez said the university is faced with the predicament of having enough classes for VCU’s increased enrollment so students can graduate on time. He said Wolfe’s petition will benefit the cause.

“It’s always helpful to have this kind of data so we can send it to the Provost’s office, and she can start working with the colleges and schools and faculty and deans to look at the problem so we can offer more class sections, and students can progress towards graduation,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said he is not sure if the new prerequisite registration system that was implemented for Spring 2012 affected students’ ability to enroll in certain courses, but said the system’s goal was to ensure students are able to take courses within their major in the appropriate sequence.

Although Wolfe’s petition isn’t critical of the current registration system, she said amending the system to favor class ranking over credit standing would quell some students’ registration woes.

“I think VCU is doing a great job trying to distinguish itself,” Wolfe said, “but I really think this is an issue that needs tending to.”

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, VCU has a four-year graduation rate of 24 percent for the Fall 2002 cohort and 23 percent for the Fall 2004 cohort.

For more information about the petition, contact Brittiny Wolfe at wolfebl@vcu.edu.

Student petitions VCU for more classes, less construction

Katherine Johnson
Columnist

Illustration by Hannah Swann

Aside from finals, registering for classes may be one of the most stressful times of the year for students.

Between holds, classes not being offered, the server crashing or classes filling up too quickly, many times students are left with very few options when they can finally register.

Although I’m only a freshman, I was able to register about a week before the rest of my friends because I brought in a lot of credits from high school. Since I was registering so early, I figured that I’d be able to get all the classes I originally planned to take.

Just to be safe, I checked the day before, only to find that I had to rearrange my whole schedule because the majority of those classes were full. If I was having that kind of luck, what would it be like when my friends were able to register?

While I think it’s only fair that those with the most credits are able to register first, it’s easy for those who register later to get discouraged and forced into classes they really don’t want just to fill their schedule.

It’s difficult to find a solution to this problem.Those who are closest to graduation, with the most credits, should have top priority so they’ll be able to finish their degree on time. Unfortunately, this fact doesn’t make underclassmen feel any better when they register.

Because of its size, VCU may want to consider opening up more options for popular classes. For example, psychology is a very popular major, so those classes are usually the first to go. This is especially true for classes that are required for multiple majors. Students from a variety of majors must compete for a class from a set list of options in order to fulfill their requirements.

I also noticed that many classes listed in the course catalog didn’t show up on the actual spring schedule. While some classes may be offered certain semesters for whatever reason, this takes out a lot of options. It seems like many of the classes that aren’t offered are the most interesting, at least to me.

As I was looking for a literature class at the 300 level, I found one I really wanted to take, only to find that it was exclusively for English majors. This doesn’t make sense because many students are required to take a class like that and ultimately face even more limitations. Getting overrides are difficult, especially if you don’t have an outstanding reason for wanting to take the class. Classes at the upper level are also smaller most of the time, which adds another level of difficulty to the process.

Paranoia and panic run rampant during registration. Students check daily to see how many seats are left in that class they really want or need to take. The only solution is finding someone who registers before you and asking them to hold a class. I’ve already done this twice in the last week.

Registration could be a smoother process, but it’s difficult to determine exactly where the flaw is. The new built-in prerequisite check is a definite step in the right direction, and makes registering a faster, more efficient process. Still, the biggest problem is class availability, whether it’s the number of seats left or the classes being offered.

VCU should expand the options for classes so students aren’t forced to take ones they don’t like or don’t need, wasting both time and money. Hopefully, this will allow students to graduate on time.