Students scramble for classes

By Joshua D Scroggin

Class cuts and reduced offerings have more students trying to walk in to classes unannounced this semester, and it’s a bad situation for all involved.

“ This mob run on classes makes me feel a little bit like a U.N. worker throwing out loaves of bread to starving refugees,” mass communications and journalism professor Gary Rice said. “The classes are mobbed by people trying to get in, and it puts the professor in awkward position.”

The awkwardness comes when the professor has to tell the 15-20 extra students to leave so the rest of the class can sit down.

Some professors blame the fire marshal. Some say the administration is being strict about not allowing classes to overflow. But whatever the excuse, getting held out of a class is a pill getting stuck on the way down a lot of students’ throats.

“ Students need one or two classes to graduate, and it’s one sad story after another,” Rice said.

Kristi Larkin, administrative support coordinator for the geography department, said she’s doing her best to accommodate graduating seniors affected by class cuts by helping them get enrolled in other classes.

University President John Welty focused on budget cuts in his address to the faculty Wednesday. Welty cited an enrollment cut of 1,500 students as a goal to be accomplished for next fall, making it essential to graduate eligible seniors.

Lots of seniors are finding it hard to find the classes they need to ensure they can walk out of the university logjam and into the employment line.

In the geography department, two full violent weather classes were eliminated displacing many graduating seniors needing the upper-division general-education requirement, Larkin said. Some of the seniors weren’t very happy

“ I had one call, and she wouldn’t quit screaming at me,” Larkin said. There wasn’t much Larkin said she could do at that point. “I told her to stop screaming.”

The problem is not only affecting upperclassmen.

Freshman Rita Kachikian said all of her classes are full or overflowing.

“ If you get there early, you get a seat,” Kachikian said. “If not, there’s a million people already there.”

Kachikian said she came to a class two minutes late and had to stand for the entire class period even though she was enrolled.

“ I was on the computer 10 minutes after my registration time,” said Kachikian, who said she didn’t have trouble enrolling, but is now having trouble finding a place to set her cheeks.

Expect classes to be crowded early this week as students hope their generation’s propensity to flake out creates some open roster spots.

“ Students are hoping other students don’t show up,” victimology professor John Dussich said. “Some students drop out for a variety of reasons.”

But it’s not looking good.

“ I think most professors want to teach, not feel that they’re giving people good seats to a sporting event,” MCJ professor Rice said. “I think it’s a real tragedy that students have to scramble and grovel to get into classes.”