By Katlin Sweeney
Editor-in-Chief
As the trend of record student enrollment continues, the Student Access Initiative has been proposed to possibly solve the rising concerns over accommodating the larger population’s need for diversified class scheduling and increasing the amount of class sections offered.
The Student Access Initiative has been a subject of contention due to the different ways it impacts prospective and current students, faculty and lecturers, both in positive and negative ways.
The university currently suffers from critical space constraints that prevent large, future growth of the student population. CSUSM has 71 classrooms on campus, with fewer than 10 of them seating more than 50 people. Without adding more buildings or increasing the amount of online courses taught through the university, CSUSM may face the possibility of having to restrict the amount of accepted applicants to the campus.
However, this process of creating more room for new students may take longer than finding more efficient ways to use the classroom spaces that already exist.
“Getting a new building is not easy because we cannot make a case to the Chancellor’s Office if our space utilization is not in the ninetieth percentile,” Vice Provost, Dr. Kamel Haddad, said. “We are in the mid 80s, which puts us as average for the CSU system. Buildings are awarded to the top two or three universities that are around the high 90s.”
Dr. Haddad expressed that the need for more space is something that will be a prevalent issue in future years, based on the current growth rate of the student population.
“We are expected to grow in students by five percent every year for the next five years,” Dr. Haddad said. “The number of classes we added alone this year were 100. We expect to add another 100 every year to accommodate the growth.”
Dr. Haddad has been heavily involved with the Student Access Initiative since he was hired at CSUSM in May. The Initiative has been in the works since last summer and was proposed by the Scheduling Task Force. Under Provost Oberem’s charge, the group was given the task of looking at the effects of increased population and the campus’ lack of space to better accommodate the influx of new students.
One of the task force’s major goals included increasing student access to classes in the hopes of reducing overlapping class times, reducing conflicts between required classes and giving more options to students. The second goal was to increase space utilization by becoming more efficient with existing classroom space and finding justification for new facilities and instructional space on campus.
The Student Access Initiative proposes new time blocks for some of the classes offered on campus, shifting away from the current structure that has presented some of these scheduling problems in the past. 98 percent of classes at CSUSM are three or four units. Three unit classes meet in 50 minute blocks three times a week, 75 minute blocks twice a week or in a 150 minute block once a week. Four unit classes meet in 50 minute blocks four times a week, 100 minute blocks twice a week, a 90 minute and a 110 minute block during the week or in a 200 minute block once a week. While the Student Access Initiative would retain some class sections being offered in these intervals, it would alter how the overall school days are structured before 2:30 p.m.
Under the new proposal, some three unit classes would shift from the twice a week, 75 minute blocks to 50 minute blocks, three times a week. In the Student Access Initiative’s proposed time block, for classes that are scheduled before 2:30 p.m. on Monday/Wednesday, they would switch from 75 minute intervals twice a week to 50 minute intervals three times a week, the extra class time being scheduled for Friday. This would increase the amount of class sections from what is currently five courses (between the hours of 7 a.m. and 2:15 p.m.) to seven courses (between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 2:20 p.m.).
“There is a lot of concern on the side of faculty because this would be a big change,” said Academic Senate and Executive Committee Chair, Dr. Laurie Stowell. “Not everybody would be moving to three day a week classes, and with some classes, it might make sense to do so because the pedagogy would be easier to transition into a shorter class period. This is not a one size fits all schedule and it is not intended to be.”
Dr. Stowell explained that while the Executive Committee has discussed the proposal, the consensus is not unanimous as to whether or not the Student Access Initiative is ready to be implemented.
“The Executive Committee was considering a resolution in support to take to the Senate on Nov. 5. It was a vote of 7 to 6 not to take the resolution of support,” Dr. Stowell said.
The switch to 50 minute class intervals may necessitate that students be on campus four or five days a week if they are unable to coordinate all of their classes to fall on Monday/Wednesday/Friday. Some faculty members have expressed concerns over whether or not the Student Access Initiative will prove successful in accelerating graduation rates and accessibility of classes for students if it increases the amount of time they are spending on campus.
“If you are a Literature & Writing student, unless you only need one or two classes to graduate, you will most likely end up with a five-day schedule,” Literature & Writing Studies Department Chair, Dr. Salah Moukhlis, said. “As a chair, I cannot schedule all core/elective courses on either Tuesday/Thursday or Monday/Wednesday/Friday because they have to be spread out to avoid class conflict.”
“The main concern among faculty as far as consequences is that it will disproportionately impact students that are poor and working class, and impact those that have family obligations of family, children or siblings to look over,” history lecturer, Professor Michael Henderson, said. “Also, there may be more campus and local congestion because more people may drive to campus per day using more gas. Also equity–access for poor students or those with other obligations is important. Very few students have the luxury of just coming to campus and doing nothing else.”
“90 percent of our students are commuter students, with more than 9,000 students taking 12 or more units,” Scheduling Task Force Committee Chair, and history professor, Dr. Patricia Seleski, said. “Of these people, 88 percent already come at least three days a week.”
Questions also arose as to whether or not faculty and lecturers would have adequate time to transition their syllabi to a 50 minute interval class structure and if their workload would be adequately compensated.
“We may need to revamp several courses in a short period of time, so that is a workload issue that concerns the union because it increases workload with no corresponding increase in our pay,” California Faculty Association President, and Associate Professor of history, Darel Engen, said. “There is the issue of research and service too. If we have to spend more time on restructuring courses and commuting more often, that’s going to take away from the other things we are required to do as well.”
“Lecturers and faculty get short term contracts that range from one semester to one year contracts to three year contracts. If this measure goes into place, it won’t necessarily change class amount but the amount of time to be on campus,” said Professor Henderson. “For tenure track it will probably have slightly less of an effect on them because they get allocated their classes first. Lecturer faculty will probably have the same consequences as students where we are here three, four, five days a week rather than two. It’s not more work but more time in the car and not being able to do other things at much. Things like preparation and grading are done at home.”
Thus far, the proposal has been brought to the Academic Senate and ASI, two open meetings have been held with various dept. chairs and the Provost conducted an open forum with the university at large for faculty and staff to share their comments and concerns.
“As far as the Student Access Initiative goes, ASI has not taken a formal stance in support or against this initiative,” said ASI Executive Committee President and CEO, Haley Perko. “Dr. Kamel Haddad, presented at our first ASI Board of Directors meeting, and gave his reasoning of why the university would like to alter the current class schedule. The change would open more course offerings, helping students get the classes they need in order to graduate in a timely manner. This initiative may not be ideal for many; however, with growth comes change, and with change comes adjustment, something we all have to start accepting with our ever so expanding CSUSM campus.”
While the Student Access Initiative has provoked a variety of negative and positive responses, all entities agreed that the priority is that student access remains the focus. In addition, many individuals argued that more student and faculty input would help to add to the already existing proposal before it is considered complete.
“We should put the interests of our students first and that’s our most important job,” Dr. Moukhlis said. “Our students deserve the best learning environment and the highest quality instruction that we can deliver. While solving these problems, let’s keep these two things a priority.”
“Faculty and CFA are in total agreement with the administration that we have a space and scheduling issue and that is something that needs to be fixed,” Professor Engen said. “It’s just how we do that and how much time we take to make sure everyone knows what’s going on that we might have disagreements about.”
“The hope is that what we can do is present students with more opportunities than fewer,” Dr. Seleski said. “We want to make sure that the very diverse lives that our students live can be accommodated within any scheme that we put forward.”