University may offer fewer courses in fall

Though administrators stressed that the course offerings for next fall were not yet finalized and that more classes will likely be added to the list, the course cuts come as the University prepares to have its largest undergraduate student body ever. The University has previously announced plans to accept a target number of 1,300 students for the Class of 2013, compared to 1,245 students in the Class of 2012.

Provost Christopher Eisgruber ’83 said in an e-mail that the smaller pool of courses may be due in part to the University’s decision to strictly limit the number of visiting faculty next year in the face of budget cuts totaling $82 million.

“As President Tilghman said in her January letter, Princeton will have fewer visiting faculty members next year,” Eisgruber explained. “Obviously, we will therefore have fewer courses taught by visitors.”

But Eisgruber emphasized that the apparent reduction in courses should not be overanalyzed.

“I would caution ... against reading too much into the specific numbers,” he said. “Numbers of course offerings fluctuate for all sorts of reasons,” Eisgruber explained, adding that the smaller pool of classes will not impinge on the University’s core teaching strengths.

“We have taken great care ... to ensure that Princeton’s academic experience retains its traditional strengths: a wide variety of courses; taught principally by permanent faculty members and leading experts in the field; and with class size small enough to permit meaningful pedagogical encounters,” he said.

Dean of the Faculty David Dobkin echoed similar sentiments in an e-mail, emphasizing the University’s ability to maintain its high academic quality despite the financial cuts. “We’ve made every effort to make changes that will have the least impact and we are optimistic that the changes we’ve made will have little impact on most students,” he said.

Notwithstanding the decreased number of classes for next fall indicated by the data on the Registrar’s website, the average class size will be between 14 and 15 students, Eisgruber noted, calling the statistic “superb.”

Professor Mark Watson, the interim dean of the Wilson School, explained that class sizes and teaching in the Wilson School will not change since visiting professors only teach specialized electives which usually have small enrollments.

“Any possible reductions have minimal impact on the high quality of our undergraduate and graduate programs,” Watson said.

It remains unclear whether the decrease in courses offered will be as dramatic as the Registrar’s website currently suggests, University spokeswoman Emily Aronson said in an e-mail.

“It would be faulty to rely on the ‘results found’ total at the bottom of the Registrar’s course listings website to make conclusions about the number of classes being offered in the fall because the offerings currently listed for each department may be preliminary,” Aronson explained.

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Several departments confirmed that their listings remain incomplete, though registration for the fall semester begins on April 20.

Mathematics department representative Simon Kochen GS ’59 said that though the current listings for the department suggest that its course offerings have been reduced by half, it plans to offer “at least 86 classes next year, just like this year.” He added that no math courses above the 300 level have been listed online yet.

The English department, which has 33 courses currently listed on the Registrar’s timetable in contrast to 51 listed for the fall 2008-09 semester, will also probably add a few more classes before the next academic year begins, departmental representative Jeff Dolven said in an e-mail.

“It’s quite likely that we’ll be back to 51 or thereabouts the year following,” Dolven said. “The discrepancy then becomes pretty small.”

Dolven added that teaching in the English department has yet to be influenced by the economy. “No one teaches less because of a downturn,” he explained. “There’s no money to be saved that way, since we are paid a fixed salary. Nor does teaching in the English Department depend upon adjuncts hired year by year.”

The timetable currently indicates that the chemistry department is only offering 87 classes next fall, compared to 111 last fall. Department chair Robert Cava said in an e-mail he hadn’t noticed the disparity but added that the chemistry department will continue to be able to adequately meet student demand.

“We will be able to accommodate any students in the incoming freshman class who may choose to take chemistry courses,” he said. “We hope that many of them will.”