To: Dr. Vincent Boudreau, President

The City College of New York

From: Afsana Akter, student

Date: September 18, 2018

Subject: More sections of engineering classes

Problem

I am a student at City College, planning to major in Computer Engineering and I am in my sophomore year. Every semester enrolling for three to four subjects is a hard job for me. It is because many Electrical Engineering courses, as well as Computer Science courses do not have enough sections and different time options to get classes comfortably. I am married and my husband works, therefore, I try to enroll from 9 am to 4 pm classes. Especially, sophomore, junior, and senior year classes have not enough sections. This problem leads to another, and that is time management. As we have one professor, they have their own comfortable time which is rush hour. Many professors of engineering course have time schedule around evening. My fellow classmates are facing same problems as well. Another big problem is there is not enough seat capacity. When a class is full and I need to take that course in any way, we have been suggested to go for over-tally, which is sometimes a great risk to not get permission to enroll. This problem can delay graduation which should be within four years. I personally think that getting more professors for a course can be a great competition among them. For City college I think space is not an issue but the issue is lack of professors.

 

Solution

The primary goal of academic scheduling is to develop class times that maximize the chance for students to develop workable schedules in order to make progress towards a degree. Proper academic scheduling encompasses courses, staff, and facilities. Our college needs a standard scheduling pattern which will meet students’ needs. Another key component to fix this issue could be spreading courses out during the day, rather than queuing at the popular hours. By spreading course offerings throughout the day, students are better served with more choices. I think we need more professors to choose from. Our college need more additional staff to make class schedules from morning to evening hours throughout the week. This way students do not need to go for over-tallies for almost all courses. I know a lot of students who work and study, and it will be a great solution for them as well. Having at least six to eight professors for junior and senior year courses will make student life easier. Full-time professors usually have their own offices and provide extra support or guidance to students during office hours. Those who do not succeed in securing a full-time position may try to find work as an adjunct professor instead. Adjunct professors are hired on a yearly or per-semester contract basis to teach a certain number of classes. It is possible to make a full-time living as an adjunct professor by taking on multiple classes. I think getting Adjunct professors can add up to this solution as well.

 

Follow up

I would like to call a follow-up meeting to discuss further about this issue. Your participation in this meeting is very important. I am looking forward to meet with you and to get a proper solution of this problem. I would be honored if you could join me. Thank you very much for your attention to my correspondence and for consideration of this request.