There will always be classes that many students will have to take at one time or another during their degree, whether it’s a general education class or not. Classes such as these never have the fear of being canceled, as they usually end up filling all of their seats quickly.
The smaller and less popular major classes do not have such luxuries, as they just barely hit the required number of students to be taught. The Religious Studies program and the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work and Criminal Justice have been hit due to the scarce number of students taking these courses.
Professor Henry Gooren, the director of religious studies and a professor of anthropology at OU, has experienced canceled classes in the past. With the class size requirements increasing, it’s difficult to tell whether or not a class is going to make the cut for the next semester.
“In the past, they would have allowed us to run classes with maybe five or six students, but that’s not the case anymore,” Gooren said. “There are special circumstances that allow it, but officially the rules are that for an intro 1000 level class, you need a minimum of 20 students. For an upper level, you need a minimum of 16 students now, and that can be flexible sometimes with lower numbers, but you rarely get a class with less than 10 or 12 people in it nowadays.”
A big factor that affects these smaller classes is the fact that enrollment is far lower than it used to be at OU, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“OU enrollment overall used to be around 21,000-22,000 students eight years ago, and it’s been just barely around 15,000-16,000 in the last couple of years,” Gooren said. “With intro classes, if they’re gen ed, they may have 50 students. For upper-level classes, if you have a limited number of students in your major, those classes are going to have between five and 10 students.”
Similarly, Joe Shively, the Senior Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, shed light on how elective classes are managed from behind the scenes.
“If somebody’s running a course that’s a pure elective, nobody actually needs it for their degree, then we are really going to need some enrollment,” Shively said. “Running that versus a major course folks have to have, recognizing that it’s a senior level course and we’ve got 10 students or 12 students who need it as seniors, we’re gonna run that. Then we’re gonna kind of trade off and go, ‘Okay, here’s a 1000 level section.’ If we don’t even cancel the course, but combine the sections, then we get good enrollment in those sections.”
To save these classes from being canceled last minute, professors advise students to register earlier to ensure their classes stay together.
“I know this is hard for students, because sometimes they’re waiting to see about financial aid, and sometimes they’re waiting to see about their job and their hours,” Gooren said. “But in general, I would say, please try to register at least four weeks before the semester starts. The earlier, the better.”
For more information on how to register for classes, visit the registration webpage at oakland.edu.
