Regardless of the efforts taken by the university to help alleviate the stress placed on the larger science and mathematics courses by large numbers of enrolling students, more work is sorely needed. For example, with only 58% of organic chemistry students able to take the accompanying lab course in 2006, the problem can only get worse when more and more students enroll each subsequent semester.
Without increasing teaching laboratory space, the projected numbers of enrolling students cannot hope to be accommodated at the levels (70% of lecture students) that the chemistry department would be pleased with. The academic departments should be involved in the conversations of how university resources are allocated and how many students are accepted into the university, especially if there is not enough physical teaching space to accommodate their present academic interests. The current measures taken are not sufficient to provide a long-term solution to the ever-growing problem of course availability deficiencies.
As students, we always hear the catch phrase ‘SBU is Red Hot.’ In other words, SBU is actually climbing in the college rankings, and becoming an institution that is competitive nationally and internationally. President Shirley Strum Kenny and many other administrators have continually cited complements from the London Times and other assorted periodicals. However, if the university really were ‘Red Hot,’ then we would not have this continual problem of students having concerns with registering for classes.
The administration has commented that students who need courses to complete their degrees are allowed to enter the classes they need. That would be great if 50% of the students who came to SBU came to complete a degree. No. Unfortunately, for the administration, 100% of our students hope to leave SBU some day. Students who come in as freshmen should not have to wait until their junior and senior years when they need certain courses to graduate. They shouldn’t have to leave SBU barely finishing all the courses required for their degree. A university that repeatedly boasts its excellence should give students more than just the basic requirements.
Plain and simple, a band-aid is not good enough to fix a wound that requires stitches.
