Humanities 1, a course that was nearly terminated this year after three years of dwindling enrollment, is now facing a new problem: over-enrollment.
Twenty-two freshmen who wanted to take the course in Western literature were shut out because of space constraints. And some of the remaining 95 students are grumbling that discussion sections are too large.
Humanities 1 is the first part of a two-course interdisciplinary sequence offered only to freshmen. The two-term course satisfies the freshman seminar requirement.
Professor Walter Stephens, director of Humanities 1 and 2, said the increased enrollment is a result of moving the sequenced course to Fall and Winter terms. For the last three years, the course has been offered on a Winter-Spring schedule.
The class is restricted to 60 freshmen, according to its description in the Organization, Regulations and Courses book. Last year, just 24 students took Humanities 1 and only 13 students enrolled in Humanities 2, Stephens said.
So Stephens moved the sequence earlier in the year in order to attract more students.
"Freshman fall is when freshmen are most aware of being freshmen," Stephens said. "They know the least about the College and are most concerned about doing [their education] right."
"They are more interested in a class where the authors they will read are known quantities," he added.
Many '97s who are taking Humanities 1 said they chose the course because of its reading list.
"The books you read in the class are books that I thought you should read in life," Cameron Potts '97 said.
"It looked like a foundation course," Jacob Waldman '97 said. "There are a lot of classical books I haven't read which will be a good background for the rest of my education."
Stephens said the shift in terms makes the course more attractive to freshmen looking for a seminar. "In the Winter term, the most ambitious students had already done their freshman seminars," he said.
At the beginning of the term, 117 students had enrolled in Humanities 1. On Friday, Stephens asked students who were not taking the course for freshman seminar credit to withdraw because the class was over-enrolled.
The class is team-taught by Stephens, who is a professor of French and Italian, Classics Professor Andrew Feldherr, and German Professor Ulrike Rainer.
Class time is divided between general lectures and smaller discussion sections.
A brochure describing the class says, "Each professor leads a discussion group of no more than sixteen students."
But with 95 people in the class, each of the discussion sections will have approximately 23 people.
Stephens said he was thrilled with the large enrollment.
"I'm very pleased with the results of the move," he said. "It is a very small price for us to pay to ... to save the course."
"It looks like we have found our niche," Stephens said.
Stephens also changed the way the course was marketed, emphasizing close interaction with professors and the importance of the course to a "university curriculum."
"We made our advertising brochure more concerned with the needs of freshmen who want to be sure they are taking a course they will always be glad they took," Stephens said.
Even though the course gets a special exemption from the Committee on Instruction, it can only allow 16 students at each of its discussion sections.
The course will gain a fourth professor Winter term, which will allow it to add another discussion section, which will drop the discussion section enrollments to below the 16-person maximum.
