The Social Sciences departments in the Division of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) and the Korbel School of International Studies are reducing five credit-hour classes to four credit hours to comply with a federal regulation, which will take effect by fall quarter.
The federal regulation comes as part of the re-authorization of the 2010 Higher Education Act. The act formalized the definition of a credit hour, specifying that a credit hour approximates to not less than “one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out-of-class student work for … 10-12 weeks for one quarter hour of credit.”
DU and other higher education institutions were required to comply with the new regulation by the end of the 2011-12 school year.
According to Paul McCarty, assistant registrar, DU typically publishes a biennial bulletin, which defines all curriculum and degree requirements.
“Fall 2012 is really the first opportunity for us to make this transition,” said McCarty, adding that the change will come in conjunction with the 2012-2014 Undergraduate Bulletin.
According to documents shared with the Clarion by director of Korbel’s B.A. program Sandy Johnson and released last week to Korbel students, students who registered prior to fall quarter 2012 and will be continuing with the international studies (INTS) major into the 2012-13 school year must complete 11-12 INTS courses for a total of 44-48 credit hours.
According to the document, “you have always needed 11-12 classes for the INTS major and that will remain the same. Regardless of the credit hours, INTS majors must complete 11-12 courses.
The document also stated, “there will be no adverse impact to students.”
Of the 13 departments that make up AHSS, economics, political science, sociology and psychology will be making the transition. All 3000-level classes and below in those departments will be reduced to four credit-hours.
The other nine departments, including anthropology, communication studies, English, languages and literature, history, media, film and journalism studies (MFJS), religious studies, philosophy and theatre, are already comprised primarily of four credithour classes and will not be affected.
“What I’m trying to say is it’s not a coherent system now,” said Anne McCall, dean of AHSS. “Some departments are making a shift.”
Each department will adjust their requirements in accordance with the new system.
For example, the economics department will now increase its requirements from 41 hours to 42 hours to graduate with a bachelor’s degree.
Any students who have not declared their major by spring 2012 and have not taken any economics courses prior to spring quarter will have to comply with the new 42 credit hour requirements, according to a statement released to all economic majors on Feb. 6. For continuing economic majors, it will no longer be possible to complete only eight courses plus the senior paper to graduate after the beginning of the fall quarter.
“We may have to offer multiple sections,” said economics chair Tracy Mott. “If we had cut our major hours, but since we didn’t, and couldn’t, we’ll have to have more classes or have bigger class sizes.”
“I could imagine that some classes … might have more students in them,” said McCall. “Because all of us are committed to our model of teaching at DU, we will be addressing those potential problems as they arise.”
Those problems include the notion of larger class sizes, which is an element DU prides itself on keeping down, according to both McCall and Mott.
Mott said it’s important for DU to hire more faculty to deal with the transition.
“If we end up with staffing issues, we will address them,” said McCall.
McCall said the measures each department will take differs depending on the department. Some departments, such as sociology, are already complying by requiring more credits to graduate.
“Other departments are saying, ‘okay, students will need to take one more course to graduate,'” said McCall. “It really differs by department.”
McCall said she thinks the transition will be the issue, not the change itself.
“I see the transition as delicate and we’ll all be working together,” she said. “I think the outcome will be highly beneficial to students.”
McCall said she can’t speculate how individual cases might show up.
“What I can say is that ever most graduate with extra credits,” she said. “I don’t anticipate a problem for first- or second-year students. They can adjust their course selection to meet the graduate requirements.”
McCall said it is possible that juniors and seniors might have to meet with their advisors to adjust accordingly.
“I would expect departments to devise mitigation measures,” she said.
For example, according to the statement released to economic majors, “If you fall short by 0.5 credit-hours, the Department Chair can waive that much. If you fall short by one hour, you will have to petition Academic Exceptions for a waiver of one hour.”
According to McCall, the new system will provide more coherence. She said the current system discourages collaboration across departments because it makes it difficult for students to take classes that may count for one department that is mostly made up of five credit-hour classes but may only be four credits. The student, she said, may hesitate to take the class because it would be a credit short.
“If the course that department agrees to accept is four hours and you’re in a major where the classes are five credits, and if you take that class, you’re going to end up a credit short,” she said. “I really look forward to the added coherence of four credits for the full, regular class experience.”
Ultimately, McCall said each department in AHSS has a solution that it’s mapping out.
“They’re different pressure points, but the goal is the same,” she said “The goal of our faculty is to introduce our students to a new field of knowledge, provide them with learning opportunities and accompany them to success.”
McCall said it’s important for students to contact their individual advisers and discuss how the change will specifically affect them.
