As students begin adjusting to their new semester schedules this week, some may find themselves in classes they would not have otherwise bookbagged.
Department chairs have said, however, they are working on changes to help accommodate enrollment logjams caused by increasing demand for certain classes.
In particular, the biology department has seen an increase in sophomores trying to enroll in what were once typically junior-senior classes, Ron Grunwald, associate director of undergraduate studies and a lecturur in biology, wrote in an e-mail. Grunwald said the new demand could be attributed to the rising trend of second-year students trying to fulfill premed requirements in order to take the MCATs the summer before junior year.
Laboratory courses, such as Microbiology, Vertebrate Anatomy and Animal Physiology, have the highest demand, but available seats are often limited because many resources are needed for lab classes, Grunwald said.
Other departments struggle to meet all students' needs as well, particularly with the wide variety of minors, preprofessional programs and certificates available.
Recently, the Markets and Management Studies program has received more interest from students and has seen a 20-percent increase in enrollment over the past two years, Ken Spenner, director of the Markets and Management Studies program and professor of sociology, wrote in an e-mail.
Given the challenge of accommodating extra students, particularly underclassmen, members of the department recently asked professors from the Fuqua School of Business to teach undergraduate courses. Fuqua Dean Blair Sheppard and Associate Professor of Marketing and Psychology Tanya Chartrand have taught undergraduate courses, all of which Spenner said were well-liked by the students.
The program has taken other steps to meet student demand as well.
"We have also expanded the number of elective offerings, both MMS listings and, in cooperation with other departments, MMS-approved offerings in those departments," Spenner said. "And we have embarked on some new initiatives like the Duke in New York: Financial Markets and Institutions Program, which is being offered for the first time this semester."
Ken Rogerson, research director for the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy and director of undergraduate studies in public policy studies, wrote in an e-mail that the certificate programs within the public policy studies often create an influx of non-public policy majors wishing to take certain electives.
"At times, students who want to take the [popular] courses are not able to take them in the semester that they initially would like to," he said. "In my experience, however, every student who wants to take a PPS course has been able to if they are willing to be flexible and patient."
Timothy Strauman, professor and chair of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, said cross-listing can be helpful in alleviating the stresses of scheduling minors and certificates.
"We believe that minor and certificate programs are important components of the Duke undergraduate experience," Strauman wrote in an e-mail. "We would not want to disadvantage students who are pursuing them."
Pratt School of Engineering students said they also encounter scheduling conflicts and limited enrollment. However, based on waitlist numbers, section and class sizes for Pratt courses can change even after enrollment windows close, Linda Franzoni, associate dean for student programs and professor of the practice of mechanical engineering, wrote in an e-mail.
Biomedical Electronic Measurements-the first course in a three-part sequence that is normally taken before junior year-was expanded from 70 to 108 students and two more lab sections were added for this semester, Franzoni said.
"We do not cap enrollments in engineering here at Duke, so every student admitted to the Pratt School has a right to major in whatever they choose," Franzoni said. "This policy creates some problems for us because we are not able to anticipate how many students are going to register for some of our entry-level engineering courses within the majors. It is much easier to predict the [junior and senior] course enrollments because we know how many students are coming out of the prerequisite courses."
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