Fairfield has been known to cut programs in order to save money. Most infamous in the minds of students was the university’s decision last February to cut the football and ice hockey teams. This decision saved Fairfield approximately $570,000 a year, which will be used to help support the financial aid program.
Thankfully, Fairfield has not been cutting large numbers of courses to save money. Therefore graduating in four years is typically not a problem. According to both Timothy Snyder, the dean of arts and sciences, and Norm Solomon, dean of the Dolan School of Business, neither school cuts particular classes in order to save money.
“Canceling courses taught by full time faculty does not save money,” said Solomon. “Any potential savings are negligible and would not be worth the effort.”
Orin Grossman, academic vice president, said that in general, over the past five or six years, Fairfield has added more classes than subtracted. Solomon added that the school of business only cuts approximately one to two percent of sections a semester, usually consisting of one to four sections.
The reason for cutting of most classes is poor enrollment. This is the case in both the school of business and arts and sciences. Usually classes with less than ten people enrolled are cancelled. These are usually higher-level courses.
“We have cut courses that enroll fewer than ten students more strictly and uniformly than we have in the past,” said Snyder. “That has made a few core courses [though very few] perhaps offered less often than in the past.”
Yet the more uniform cutting of courses with under enrollment causes problems for some students.
“I had two of my classes cut this semester,” said Ben Manchak, ’05. “Luckily, I was able to pick up another class which double- counted for my major and minor. Had I been unable to get this class, I wouldn’t have finished one of my minors.”
Students at public universities across the country complain they cannot get into all required courses in order to graduate in four years.
Graduating in four years does not appear to be a problem at Fairfield. According to Grossman, about three to five percent of seniors typically need the summer after commencement or the next year to complete their degree.
There is also currently a fifth year accounting program in the school of business which is enrolled by 20 students.
In the school of business, Solomon said that “no student has not graduated from the Dolan School of Business because courses were not available.”
Typically, three to eight students do not graduate on time from the school of business, due to poor performance.
“No one to my knowledge has not been able to graduate in four years because we didn’t offer the right number of courses,” said Grossman. “Students were simply closed out of required courses for graduation.”
For the majority of students, being “simply closed out of required courses” can cause more than just a minor hassle.
“I’ve always had a problem with registration,” said Paul Swartz, ’04. “I’d say I’ve gotten into about 10 percent of the classes I’ve wanted. The rest were just random fillers.”
Although Swartz states that he will not have a problem graduating on time, sharing the situation of the majority of Fairfield seniors, the registration process has been very frustrating.
With an extensive core curriculum and U.S. and world diversity requirements, correct registration is the key to graduating on time, or at least finding the classes one wants to take.
Contrary to student opinion, Synder says, “our students generally have as easy a time – or, perhaps, given recent cutbacks elsewhere – as easier time of accessing core courses than do students of other institutions.”
“Preferential registration is definitely a good thing,” said Dan Giroux, ’04. “I didn’t realize how important it was with my scholarship at first, but now I appreciate it.”
Often students are forced to find a back route around the registration process.
“It’s not that bad,” said James Hays, ’04. “If you can’t get into the right classes, you can usually just get signed into them.”
Besides wishing for pure luck when registration time comes around or working to get signed into that last required class, there are many things that Fairfield students can do to make sure they graduate in four years.
The Dean’s office in the school of business sends every senior a completed checklist and audit the summer before senior year and again in January or early February.
On StagWeb, students can access their unofficial transcripts and degree evaluation.
The university website has curriculum checklists and the curriculum catalogue with every requirement listed for graduation.
Finally, students are urged to meet with their advisors frequently in order to avoid any complications with graduation.
Leave a Reply