And, so it begins again …
Published on Aug 25, 2008 at 3:18 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under college teaching.
This summer has been frantic for me. I had a lot going on, with a full teaching load and several other projects. All that is over now.
Last week, we had a whole week to “prepare” for the fall semester. Actually, we spent the entire week going to meetings. We had meetings, meetings, and yet more meetings. In fact, most of us never got fully ready for the fall semester (particularly those of us who taught in the summer) until this past weekend. Today was the first day of classes. The administrators don’t seem to realize that it takes time to prepare for class. I guess that all they need to do to get ready for the semester is to have meetings, so a week of meetings doesn’t phase them any. The rest of us have work to do.
At any rate, today was the first day of the semester. I came in early to get ready. Wow. If I had not, then I’d never have found a parking spot. By shortly after I arrived, the parking lots were filled. We have a record number of students enrolled in the college. In fact, we have nearly double the number of students that were here when I started full time ten years ago. At the same time, we have fewer parking spaces. As with most colleges and universities, parking lots become fair game when new construction is needed. The students don’t bother to read the parking rules that come with their parking permits, so they park in faculty parking. Some don’t care about the tickets. Others park elsewhere, freeing up another space for more students to park in faculty parking. I know that if I arrive at the wrong time, I’ll have to park clear across campus in the overflow parking.
Enrollment is up, so that means that we need more faculty. We hired quite a few new full time faculty, but we also hired a boat load of part time faculty. All those people also need to park. And of course, there is absolutely no additional faculty parking since when I started years ago.
Why the huge increase in enrollment? Well, as a state institution, our tuition is much lower than the private universities. And, that means that we pick up a lot of students that would have gone there. Our tuition is even less than that at the state’s big universities so that means even more students. And, with the economy down, more people go to college. All that means that not only is the college’s student enrollment up, but we have a record number of physics and astronomy students. All of our faculty are maxed out, with teaching schedules at the maximum overload level. Most of our part time faculty are also at the maximum load permitted. And, we just barely covered all of the classes being offered this semester.
But, with me getting back to a more “normal” schedule, I hope to be back to blogging more. I’ll try to keep my readers up on the latest astro-news and happenings. So, keep tuned in!
-Astroprof
James Kohler on August 25, 2008 at 5:00 pm: 1
The parking situation echos across campuses nationwide.
Today I read that even college presidents aren’t immune to this. At Lewis and Clark Community College, President Dale Chapman parked off campus and then took a shuttle to the school. Of course this was because the parking project had not been completed by contstruction crews in time.
It’s ironic that graduationg students cite parking as their No. 1 concern on campus.
Why don’t they just build a 10 level parking garage and charge students for a semester parking pass? Most students would prefer to know they can find parking then just getting tickets for taking the hand dealt to them…
Steven Long on August 28, 2008 at 4:38 pm: 2
I’ve never had to park on the grass before this semester. I’ve never seen the college so full before either. I think a parking garage is very called for, or a shuttle service or something!