Many political science majors with a concentration in international relations woke up to register for classes a few weeks ago and received an unpleasant early-morning shock. They found themselves in a mad scramble for spots in the classes they need to graduate.
Students majoring in political science are required to take a 200-level course in their concentration. When ACES opened three weeks ago, only two IR concentration graduate-level courses were listed for the fall.
“Two weeks ago, we were looking at not enough classes, which is just unacceptable,”said Michael Munger, chair of the political science department. “Because of the e-mails from students, we’ve added two more 200-level courses.”
Nonetheless, the political science department is still offering fewer IR concentration classes in the fall than the nine it offered this semester. Munger said that although there are now enough spots open for students who need the classes to graduate, the courses available may not focus on topics students are interested in studying.
“Now the situation is just bad instead of terrible,” Munger said. “It’s the capstone of their major, and they have to take whatever is offered rather than what they’re interested in.”
Many professors who specialize in international relations will be gone next year, which lowers the number of IR courses the department is able to offer. According to the political science department’s website, five of the 12 professors who specialize in IR will not be here to teach in the fall.
“It’s a temporary absence of a bunch of faculty,” said Peter Feaver, professor of political science. “You don’t need many of them to be gone before you get down to the numbers we’re seeing.”
Feaver will be on sabbatical for the entirety of next year to work for President George W. Bush’s administration. Albert Eldridge, Emerson Niou and Ole Holsti, also professors in the IR concentration, will be joining Feaver on sabbatical.
Additionally, Professor Robert Keohane, a star of the University’s political science department, has left Duke permanently. After spending a year at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto, Calif., Keohane will become a professor of international relations at Princeton University next year.
“The shortage in professors happens every semester. It’s a sign that we have prominent faculty that work with both research and policy,” Munger said.
He cited Niou, who will be working at a university in Hong Kong next year, and Feaver as examples of faculty whose experiences away from the University will benefit their students upon their return.
In addition to the departure of professors, Munger also pointed to a spike in the number of students majoring in political science as a reason for competition for seats in IR classes.
“Our enrollments in poli sci have doubled since 1998, and we’ve had no increase in faculty. There’s just been a huge increase because of the war [in Iraq], impeachment, 9/11,” he said. “Hiring tenure-track faculty is expensive, and it makes no sense for us to adjust for temporary interest by hiring tenure-track faculty.”
To compensate for the shortage of faculty, the department has had to hire adjunct professors to teach higher-level classes.
“Every year we end up hiring eight or 10 adjuncts like this.” Munger said. “They’re really going to help us cover the fact that we’ll be missing some good faculty.”
Munger added that the department uses graduate students to teach classes only as a last resort.
Although neither of the two recently added IR courses are currently on ACES, Munger said that one of them will be an international institutions course taught by Lenora Perotto-Jones, an attorney with experience in international relations who has a Ph.D. in political science. Geoffrey Hale, an associate professor from the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, will teach the other added graduate-level course. The Fulbright scholar is an expert in international trade agreements.
The department also plans to offer four 200-level IR concentration courses next spring, so that the approximately 60 rising seniors who need the classes will be able to fulfill their concentration requirement.
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