Peter Chen '08 is just one of many students struggling to get into Government 5 this term. The class, an important introductory course in the government major, is not offered again until next fall, but Chen needs it to enroll in other international relations courses before then.
Now one of five students left on a waitlist that originally numbered more than 30, Chen is offering to pay people to drop the class so he can get in.
"I got shafted and still haven't gotten into [professor Benjamin] Valentino's class yet. At this point, I just need ONE person to drop for me to sign up," Chen wrote in a BlitzMail message to the 104 enrolled students. "So here's the deal: I'll give 50 bucks to one person who drops by Friday."
Chen is just one of many government, economics and psychology majors, among others, who had trouble getting into necessary introductory classes. Many more were packed together in bulging, overfilled classes.
Valentino said he and other government faculty members were aware of the growing trend of overfilled classes in their department but that there was only so much they could do.
"Either we increase class size -- and that's not good -- or we have to hire more faculty to teach more classes," Valentino said.
Students and professors have had similar troubles with the popularity of and demand for certain courses in the economics department. There are 223 students divided into five closed Economics 1 sections and 75 others in popular professor Wolfgang Gick's two closed Economics 21 classes.
"The deans are being helpful about dealing with the amount of econ majors that are trying to cram into our department, but it would be very helpful if we were able to add new full-time faculty," economics department chair Jon Skinner said.
"People come to Dartmouth so they can get into the classes they want and so these classes aren't too packed," Skinner continued.
Several professors complained that much of the course selection process at Dartmouth does not allow discrimination by major, seniority or number of times waitlisted. The current system randomly fills capped classes, bumps a certain number of students and then waitlists another smaller set. Individual professors have authority over their waitlists but can only overfill their classes or fill spaces when students drop the course.
"The registrar is a blunt tool that can't help but arbitrarily cut students from classes they need or from classes they have been trying to get into for a year," Valentino said.
Registrar Polly Griffin suggested that departments could take a more active role in selecting which students are placed in their classes.
"We simplify the process through course selection, but after that, the departments each have their own criteria, and we don't want to infringe upon that," Griffin said.
Despite the difficulties many students experienced this term, the registrar's office remains calm and mainly empty.
"There are always students freaking out," Associate Registrar Leroy Graham said, "but the lines haven't been that long this quarter."
Eighty-five percent of students this winter are enrolled in three courses, seven percent in two courses and eight percent in four.
