UH faces class shortage

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

The crisis in student housing at the University of Hawai'i has been the talk of the Manoa campus for weeks, but the focus has shifted to academics with the start of the fall semester today and officials still scrambling to provide enough classes to meet burgeoning enrollment.

But last week, with many classes already full and word filtering in about overwhelming demand, officials worked to add critical classes — and tried to avoid a first day of school marked by angry students shut out of courses they need.

On Friday morning — a state holiday — political-science chairman Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller was sitting in his office, going down a list of lecturers to find one more person to teach a class that had just been opened to accommodate overflow. Other administrators across campus were doing the same.

"It's been a struggle," Goldberg-Hiller said. "This past week we just started hearing about a great deal of demand. What we have done in the last couple of days is open another couple of classes, but it's difficult to find lecturers at the last minute."

Neal Smatresk, the new vice chancellor for academic affairs, said he has authorized 15 additional classes throughout campus in the past week to meet demand, and expects to add another eight this morning, particularly in areas such as anthropology, economics, computer science labs, physics, bio-labs, political science and possibly women's studies.

"The system in the past hadn't been tuned to really be responsive in a very quick way to student demand, and we are going to change that," said Smatresk, who joined the Manoa campus as the spring semester was ending.

"By spring, it will be much better and by fall, it will be a system anyone would be proud of."

In the economics department, undergraduate adviser Gary Kikuchi has never seen such demand for classes. Classes were already full in May because returning students had already signed up, long before freshmen and transfer students were even admitted.

"If a student went online (to register), there would be nothing to take," he said. "All of our 300- and 400-level courses are filled up, everything to the brim. That has never happened before."

Some administrators worry that the first day of classes will see students grumbling about not getting courses they need and want, but others suggest that seats will open up as students release classes they have over-booked.

Aug. 30 is the last day to drop classes and Sept. 1 the final day to add.

Experienced advisers suggest that students get on their computers and keep checking if they haven't been able to get into classes they want. Seats can open at any time as other students drop classes.

Jan Heu, interim director of admissions and records for Manoa, said that even on the Friday holiday last week there was a steady stream of students dropping by her office with questions, although not all involved availability of classes.

"We recruited well and we have a good product — a good quality education for a rather reasonable price," Heu said. "But we're probably reaching our ceiling for students who can be accommodated within the infrastructure we have."

On the facilities side, the result was 700 to 800 students who got no dorm rooms because of the surge in fall enrollment.

Heu has been working closely with Smatresk to make seats available in classes or add sections to courses.

"He's making a valiant effort," said Heu, of Smatresk's almost around-the-clock schedule to accommodate increased enrollments, which will continue this week.

"He's been talking with students, deans and administrators."

Freshmen and transfer students have faced much of the difficulty because they register after continuing students have taken most classroom slots.

"August 13 was when they could first register and by then most of the classes were filled up, especially three core courses that are prerequisites for 400-level courses," said Kikuchi of the economics department. "And some of the 400-level courses aren't offered every semester or even every year."

Over in the College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature, dean Joseph O'Mealy was given permission to open three new sections to accommodate enrollment increases. One in French opened Wednesday, another in Spanish on Thursday, and a third in English 100 will open today. On Thursday, he was able to find lecturers to teach them all.

"We're in good shape" thanks to the extra classes, he said, "but if we knew more about what student demand truly was, I'd be more confident in saying that."

The Banner system has been used for a year, and administrators have encountered a complication because of what it does not do: take waiting lists or measure the demand for a particular class.

This had not been a problem in the past, but with enrollments up approximately 3 percent — 800 to 900 students at Manoa — and maybe more over last fall, it's creating complications this semester.

"There's no way of counting the number of students who have tried to get in and failed, because there's no waiting list," O'Mealy said. "There's no mechanism on the current registration system to put a check-mark down somewhere to say 'I want to get into this class.'

"We need to find a way of counting student demand and project it better than we do."

Smatresk recognized the problems with Banner and is working at making significant changes, especially to enable wait-lists, and highlight new classes that have just been added, which does not occur now.

In a domino effect, the lack of information on how many more classes are needed leads to other issues, including: how many classrooms are still available during the peak teaching hours of 8 a.m. and noon; their size and the number of students they can comfortably accommodate.

And the university is trying to serve hundreds more students with a budget no higher than last year's.

"Demand is high and that's a good thing," said political science chairman Goldberg-Hiller. "It's just struggling with not enough money."

Officials expressed particular concern that the budget may mean less assistance for professors as they face larger classes.

For instance, with class sizes of 50 or more in the economics department, professors have been able to ask for a grader to help evaluate student homework, said Kikuchi, but there isn't money available for that service this year, and he worries it will affect what is offered to students.

"If there are 100 students (in a class), there's no way you can assign weekly homework," he said of professors. "It's physically impossible to grade all those papers and return them on time.

"I know one 321 class has 75 students and another 50 students and it's taught by the same instructor. He's probably saying 'What am I going to do with all these students?' "

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.