Many students have voiced their disapproval of the large number of classes meeting at the same time. Despite some improvements since last year, Janet Ha '07 found herself making a choice between language courses that all met on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, the same time as English and social science courses she had intended to take.
Christianna Bonin '07, however, views this as an inevitable part of the process. In the end, Bonin was pleasantly surprised. "I found out that my German professor was willing to arrange an independent study with me so I could still take the course," she said. "It doesn't hurt to inquire, often times [professors are] helpful. Plus, there's so many classes to take here ... if you can't get one, there's got to be another one out there."
While only 31 classes are taught between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., with only seven classes beginning at 8:30 a.m., 98 classes are offered between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. In addition, 59 courses begin at 2:00 on Tuesdays alone. This has created a huge imbalance of classes, with the vast majority of courses crowded together in the same time slots. However, professors have been quick to point out that students will often avoid classes before 9:00 a.m. after staying up until the wee hours of the night.
Associate Professor of Political Science Javier Corrales commented on the negative consequences of overlapping courses. "When you have so many overlapping courses, you undermine the open curriculum policy of the College," he said.
Getting into a top-choice class is no easy task, especially for first-years and sophomores. John Kim '06 recalled being turned down twice for a film and writing course before being granted an uncontestable spot in the class the spring semester of his sophomore year, only to find out, to his disappointment, that a different professor would be teaching the course. Professor of Asian Language and Civilization Paola Zamperini found herself in the uncomfortable situation of cutting down a 70 student class to 25-30 students. Like most professors at Amherst, Zamperini gave top priority to upperclassmen, students fulfilling their major requirements and pre-registered students.
Visiting Professor Jeeyoung Shin encountered problems in her Korean Cinema class as well during the shopping period. Every class would see the appearance of new faces and the disappearance of old ones, forcing her to reteach many of the topics covered on the first day of class. Ha addresses the downside of the shopping period for many students. "It's a bit frustrating for students who already know exactly what they're taking, since the class dynamics keep changing throughout the shopping period as people come and go, but I do think it's necessary for the people who have a lot of room for electives," she said.
Even pre-registration, once considered to be in the safest bet in gaining access to popular courses like Murder or Introduction to Psychology, is now susceptible to endangerment. Corrales' course, The Political Economy of Petro-States, butted heads with the registrar when the professor chose to use a lottery system rather than giving preference to students who had pre-registered for the class.
One student in the class who wished to remain anonymous explained the lottery process that took place. "Without any notice via e-mail or any heads-up from the registrar's office I came to political science 17, a class that I had pre-registered and a class that was a staple to my political science major, among 88 other students. Learning that this class was capped at 45 and that Professor Corrales didn't believe in the pre-registration system, we put our names into an athletic bag and painfully pulled 30 students-actually it was 34 because of a miscount."
Students were also asked to write essays for the remaining 10-15 spots.
"I lost the lottery, but later discovered from the registrar's office that an impending 'meeting' ... would shortly ensue. Apparently, the registrar's office was concerned about Professor Corrales' determination techniques regarding his class, as he used a lottery where a number of unregistered students gained entrance at the expense of pre-registration students," said the student. "Based on a brief conversation with Professor Corrales and the realization that the lottery winners remained in the class, it appears that Professor Corrales came out on top."
Students who had pre-registered for the class were shocked to discover that their class schedule, planned months in advance, was now in jeopardy. Corrales expressed his views towards the pre-registration process. "I did not ask the registrar to set a limit so basically everyone who wanted to register, registered." This decision, Corrales argues, gave students the impression that it was a binding contract with a guaranteed spot into the class. Corrales said, "I hate turning people away in general and I hate doing it at that moment when students have planned the semester ... I felt awful."
As a result, Corrales now sees his only solution as an enrollment cap. However, he noted that this new solution was not flawless. "The problem with [an enrollment cap] is that it gives priority to those who rush through registration," he said. "It rewards students who make up their minds quickly. I don't like the new system but it has the benefit of not raising false expectations."
The unnamed student sees this as an administrative issue as well. "I believe the underlying problem is that Amherst College administration is plagued with hierarchical issues and a lack of coordination among its employees. The fact that a professor, one who is paid by the college as one part of a well-oiled machine, can control the operation and organization of it is a concern," the student said. "The Amherst College administration, one I thought was designed as 'top-down' apparently is designed as 'bottom-up.' I think this debacle is a bad omen of larger administrative problems that continue to be concealed."
Zamperini has suggested other points for improvement with registration policies, including the online enrollment of students rather than forcing students to run around campus looking to get their advisor's signatures for class approval through the registrar's office.
Corrales sees a need to create new time slots in the late afternoon or evening. "It's a tough issue," said Zamperini. "Everyone is here to learn and no one wants to prevent students from learning."
The main issue here deals with striking a balance between letting students take the classes they want to take and making sure that the class size will not lessen the quality of the class. Zamperini's advice for students wishing to get into their top-choice classes is to contact the professor ahead of time to give the professor an idea of why they want to take the class and for them to get a general sense of the course. The worst thing a student could do, Zamperini warns, is for students to get a "false sense of freedom and wait until the second week of class expecting to get into the class" only to be declined a spot or fall two weeks behind in the course material.