The Elm Student Newspaper
Despite large number of freshmen, student-faculty ratio remains low
Faith Hayden
Considering the unusually large freshmen class this year at Washington College, one might be surprised to find out that the student-to-faculty ratio is exactly the same as last year, according to the administration -- 12.2:1. This is due to the fact that additional professors were hired for the fall semester.
"The college attempts to keep this ratio as close to 12:1 as possible," stated Provost and Dean of the College Joachim Scholz. "Twelve to two has been the lowest the college has had in years. At one point, it was as high as 12.6:1.
Even though WC accepted its largest
freshman class ever, Dean Scholz
reported that the student-faculty ratio
remains 12.2:1.
Photograph by Lauren McLoughlin, Elm photographer.
"Over the years [however] these numbers have gradually decreased."
Based on statistical data compiled in 1999, when the school also maintained a 12.2:1 ratio, the average class size at WC is between 16 and 20 students.
Seventy-seven percent of all classes have a size of 20 or fewer students, and only 16 courses, out of the total 295, contain over 30 students."[WC] is committed to keeping class sizes small," Scholz commented.
"However, large classes are not always avoidable."The larger classes such as General Biology, General Chemistry, and Introduction to Psychology can have as many as 85 students.
"There are over 80 students in my General Biology class," remarked freshman Tori Eaton. "This can be very distracting, but when it comes to classes that all student are required to take, numbers of that magnitude are unavoidable."
"One of main reasons I chose Washington College was because of its small class size," commented freshman Cynthia Stowell. "There are only 12 people in my German class, and I know many other students who are enrolled in small classes.
"It seems to be that this is a priority of the administration," she continued.
Whereas the student-to-faculty ratio hasn't changed, the balance of full-time faculty verses "full-time-equivalent" faculty members has.
Full-time-equivalent faculty members are simply part-time professors whose workloads are added together to equal the work load of one full-time professor. For example, if one full-time professor teaches three classes, and three part-time professors teach one class each, then the three part-time professors would be the equivalent to the one full-time professor.
Last year, 84% of the WC faculty were full-time professors. This year, however, only 80% are full-time, according to Scholz.
"There has been a slight decrease over the past year," Scholz remarked. "This is partly due to the fact that some of the full-time positions couldn't be filled in time for the fall semester and had to be filled by part time professors [in the meantime].
"Washington College lives and dies by the notion that students deserve personal attention," Scholz concluded. "We are committed to keeping the student to faculty ratio as close to 12:1 as possible, and are in the process of hiring [more professors] for the spring semester."
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