Some departments have begun informing students that they are cutting back classes for the fall 2012 semester, leaving students with less course options.
Wayne Wright, associate professor and department chair of philosophy, sent an email stating that classes were canceled.
“In order to ensure maximum enrollment in courses while minimizing the total number of courses offered, we have been running fewer upper-division courses than we would prefer,” Wright said. “We have instead run more lower-division courses with higher enrollments.”
The main issue with the cuts in these departments is that students are not getting as much free range to explore and to intensively study a topic they specialize in.
“Specialized courses tend to have lower enrollments, and we simply cannot afford that given our increased enrollment targets and reduced staffing resources,” Wright said.
Although the cuts are not directly a result of the budget problems affecting Cal State Long Beach, the budget has made an impact.
“The budget problems have prevented us from hiring new tenure-track faculty to fill gaps in our program; chiefly, in ancient philosophy and philosophy of law,” Wright said.
Other departments are not having issues, but will not necessarily know how cuts will affect them until next spring.
John Tsuchida, department chair of Asian and Asian American studies, said classes being cut in this department depend on the enrollment situation.
Last spring, the department of political science had insufficient enrollment, and, as a result, some courses were cut.
This fall, however, has not had the same effect.
“We haven’t had to cut [any classes] for the fall,” said Teresa Wright, political science department chair.
Some students are also concerned with how the budget cuts are affecting classes, and how they will deal with these cuts in order to enroll in the classes they need to graduate.
“The budget cuts are causing me to choose less classes because I feel like it may affect the teachers’ incentive to work as hard, and the intensity of the course material in general,” said Cayley Conrado, freshman fashion merchandising and design major.
Picking classes seems to be a problem for some students this upcoming semester.
Jason Tully, junior journalism major, said he has learned to plan two or three semesters ahead.
“What is offered during the fall may not be available next spring – it’s almost like you have to develop a strategy to graduate on time,” Tully said.
Although students’ choices are being reduced, students are still able to get classes that will allow them to satisfy their major or minor requirements.
However, the classes that students are able to take in order to satisfy those requirements may not always coincide with the classes that students want to take.
“Students may settle for a class that fulfills a requirement, but not necessarily the class that they want or that will benefit them the most when they graduate,” Tully said.