Students choosing their classes for winter quarter may notice a
few changes in the schedule from last quarter.
Specifically, new seminar and tutorial courses have been added,
and the numbering of all seminar and tutorial courses will be
uniform across departments.
The seminars were added to give students more of an opportunity
to interact with faculty members and to explore new topics.
“I think the goal of these seminars is to expose students
to things they haven’t thought of before and to get them
excited about learning,” said Albert Courey, a chemistry and
biochemistry professor who will be teaching his first Fiat Lux
freshman seminar winter quarter.
The implementation of these new seminars and tutorials also
coincides with a 2002 mandate by former UC President Richard
Atkinson for UCLA to add 375 new courses by the end of the
2003-2004 academic year.
Beginning winter quarter, courses numbered 19, 88, 89, 98, 99
and 188-199 will be seminar or tutorial courses, regardless of the
department. For example, all courses numbered 19 will be Fiat Lux
Freshman Seminars, and courses numbered 88 will be sophomore
seminars.
Some departments already number their courses by these
standards, but the numbering of these courses is now universally
mandated.
Though there is some potential for confusion, students should
ultimately benefit from the renumbering, said Raymond Knapp, former
chairman of the Academic Senate’s Undergraduate Council, a
committee which regulates undergraduate academic affairs.
“I didn’t really notice any changes at all,”
said Keldon Cox, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student.
Though the addition of these seminars has been in the works for
years, the increase was prompted by a study concluding that UCLA
faculty members teach the fewest number of courses per faculty
member of any UC school.
As a result of a 1992 promise to the state legislature, Atkinson
requested in 2002 that all UC campuses combined add at least 1,000
new courses taught by regular-rank faculty members. Since UCLA had
the lowest courses taught to faculty ratio, UCLA was asked to add
the most new courses of any school.
“The new seminars will help increase the number of
undergraduate courses taught by UCLA professors,” Knapp
said. “However, this is not the primary
purpose.”
Knapp said the new courses will give students greater access to
faculty and provide them with more flexible options.
For example, some science departments will offer seminar courses
that provide a “stepping stone for graduate work” by
exposing students to current research in their field, said
Knapp.Â
Additionally, some departments will provide seminars in which
thesis students can share and improve their papers with one
another.
As to whether UCLA will meet its goal of 375 additional courses
this year, Caroline West, director of the Office of Analysis and
Information Management Committee, said it is too soon to tell.
“We can’t tell until the end of the year how many
new courses have been offered since the course offerings are uneven
from quarter to quarter,” she said.
Students overall seem to welcome the increase of smaller
classes.
Yvonne Champana, a third-year law student who also received her
bachelor’s degree from UCLA, said she prefers smaller classes
and that the new seminar courses will be beneficial to
students.
“Smaller classes give a better education. …
There’s more class discussion and teachers give you more
feedback,” she said.