On its surface, the University is growing. Enrollment is increasing, multimillion-dollar buildings are emerging across campus and every year brings talk of new renovations, expansions and upgrades.
But inside the classroom, headcounts are also rapidly growing, and the number of new faculty has failed to keep up with a burgeoning student body. As such, introductory-level classes have now grown to teach more than 500 students at once, causing teachers to instruct in environments that some say are disarrayed and chaotic.
“It’s demoralizing. It takes the enthusiasm out of the classroom,” sociology professor Caleb Southworth said. “You’ve eliminated the possibility of the professor doing a good job in that environment. And for the students, you’re not going to have a good course.”@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=southworth@@
Southworth begins his Sociology 204 lecture at noon sharp, yet it takes 10 full minutes for students’ voices to taper off. Students often arrive late, leave early or fail to show up at all. Those who do are often distracted — texting on their cell phones, talking or playing video games on their laptops.
Because attendance is not taken, University junior Steven Delaney sometimes leaves this class early out of boredom and frustration.@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=delaney@@
“There’s a lot of people just on their phones, not even listening or anything,” Delaney said. “There are just so many people … the way it’s done is to get as many people through it as possible, more than actually learning anything.”
In 2005, Southworth’s class had only 322 students, but today it holds 510. In addition to sociology, some introductory-level psychology, economics, business and anthropology classes have as much as doubled in size over the past six years.
This sharp increase is not accidental. It’s a byproduct of the University’s mission to expand, as administrators struggle to balance both its student and faculty numbers.
In 2009, University Senior Vice President and Provost Jim Bean released an “Academic Plan” for the University, calling for the student body to grow to a total of 24,000 students and adding 100-125 tenure-track faculty.
This fall, the University’s student body was composed of 23,389 students — an increase of 15 percent from 2005 — and though the University has added close to 58 full-time instructors since 2009, the number is still far from the goal set forth in the Provost’s plan.
“We’re in this kind of unbalanced period. We’ve grown the student body much faster than this rate would support,” Bean said.
But it’s better than the alternative, Bean explained. Although overwhelming and difficult, swelling class sizes are necessary at this time, as opposed to students not getting into the classes they need to graduate.
“It was the lesser of two evils,” Bean said.
But with tuition costs rising rapidly and faculty salaries stagnating, some instructors question the administration’s priorities.
“We spend the money on football and buildings, and we don’t spend the money on faculty — it’s just that simple,” Southworth said.
Southworth’s concerns have some footing. In October 2010, The Oregonian reported that the University spent $1.8 million of its general fund last year on academic support for student-athletes — who comprise just 2.1 percent of the student body.
Additionally, the University’s investment per student is relatively low. Although the University takes in about as much revenue per student as other American Association of University schools, it spends 56 percent less per student than other leading research institutions.
Yet, as the student body continues to grow, support organizations also require financial bolstering, Bean said. This means not only hiring more faculty, but additional administrators, academic advisers, DPS officers and admissions officers.
“We’re growing as fast as an institution can grow,” Bean said. “We’re in a difficult period, and we have to catch up, but it will take another few years.”