Academy Cancels Courses Due to Low Interest a and Faculty Shortage

Scrambling to find replacements for cancelled courses, many Exonians have been forced to rethink their academic year schedules. Recently, certain departments have had to cancel courses due to a lack of student interest or lack of available faculty.

Specific departments like the Latin department have policies that allow students to take any level of instruction without having to worry about a minimum class size. Most departments, though, are not given this benefit and are sometimes forced to cancel classes due to lack of interest.

Two winter computer science classes were cancelled this year: CSC 426 and CSC 490.

Computer science instructor Sean Campbell explained the reasoning behind the cancellation. “There just weren’t enough teachers to teach those courses. There are two computer science teachers,” he said. “Teachers generally teach four sections a piece, and that makes eight classes in total. Including those two classes, there were ten sections enrolled, so we didn't have enough teachers to teach all of those sections.”

Campbell further explained that certain courses like CSC 205, 211 and 315 cannot be cancelled because they are required for graduation, whereas higher level courses like 426 and 490 are not required and therefore end up being cancelled instead. This causes an issue because 426 is only offered winter term, so students who signed up for the course will have to wait until next year for the opportunity to take it again.

Campbell was unsure if the low staffing situation would be resolved by next year. “It would be nice if we could find somebody who could teach a couple of comp. sci. classes. And I don’t know from the staffing standpoint, but I don’t get to make that decision. If it was up to me, I would probably see if we could hire somebody else to teach that or find somebody at the school who would be interested in picking up a section or two,” he said.

“The bigger thing for me is I hate to have classes cancelled because there are kids who signed up that want to take it and they don’t get to.” Campbell continued, addressing his larger concern with cancelling courses.

“The bigger thing for me is I hate to have classes cancelled because there are kids who signed up that want to take it and they don’t get to.”

Dean of Faculty Ronald Kim explained Exeter’s policy on cancelling classes and how it differs from other schools. “We only run courses that students sign up for. I don’t know of any other school that does this. Most schools tell you which courses will be offered and then the students sign up for them,” he said. Kim continued, stating that if Exeter were to follow this procedure, students would feel restricted in terms of courses. “From the perspective of those schools, this is much easier since it is predictable which courses will be offered, who needs to be hired to teach them and when the courses will be scheduled. It would also be easier for us if we did that, but that would limit the flexibility and choice that students now enjoy.”

The science department also had to cancel a course planned for winter term. Upper Will Rau was planning on taking Evolution, but later found out it was cancelled due to a lack of students. “I think it was kind of a shame that my biology course got cancelled because I signed up for it last spring. I was really excited to take it, and then I got the email walking back to my dorm one day that said it was cancelled,” he said. “It said on the email list that there were only five kids. I think if the school wants to prevent this, they should hire more teachers or offer less courses.”

Rau was able to sign up for a winter computer science. While Rau had ample time to select another course, another student, upper Annie Ning, had a less favorable experience.

The history department had to cancel its intermediate European history course for winter term due to lack of interest. “I got an email telling me that my history course for next term was cancelled because only four people had signed up,” Ning said. “Because this was one or two days after Add/Drop closed, there were only four other course choices still available. Since I needed that history credit, I basically had to choose one at the last minute.”

Ning’s situation was especially difficult because the course she had signed up for was a sequence course that she had planned to continue taking throughout the year.

When courses are cancelled, students are notified by Academic Scheduler Kenney Chan. In the end, with the assistance of Chan, Ning still successfully chose a course and was satisfied with her selection. “I'm actually really looking forward to the course I ended up picking. Even though it's completely different, I think I'll enjoy it more than the course I originally wanted to take. So I guess it all worked out in the end,” she said.