Though many students may believe their classes should be worth
more units than they are allotted, it may be in the best interest
of students for departments not to do re-uniting.
As the new quarter starts and students weigh their options, many
realize that more units is not always better as it can affect
whether they are able to graduate in four years.
Each department and school at UCLA is responsible for their own
unit count for courses and classes range from one-unit seminars to
eight-unit field biology courses.
Classes in the humanities are often worth more units than
classes in the engineering school, but both adhere to the same
university standards.
It is university policy that “one unit represents three
hours of work per week per term by the student, including both
class attendance and preparation,” said Linda Mohr, the
principal policy analyst for the Academic Senate.
The senate advises UCLA administration on issues that affect all
parts of the university, such as its structure, budget, and faculty
appointments.
Proposals to re-unit are introduced and voted on first by the
departmental faculty and are then forwarded to the divisional
Faculty Executive Committee, Mohr said. Proposals that are approved
by the FEC are forwarded to the undergraduate council for final
approval, she said.
Because re-uniting decisions are up to each individual
department, it accounts for the inconsistency in course units.
The General Education Reform, which took place two years ago,
affected the unit numbers for a variety of courses in multiple
departments. It required that all departments offering GE classes
restructure and resubmit their courses for recertification to carry
GE credit.
Under the old plan prior to fall 2002, students earned four
units for GE courses. Under the new plan, most GE courses are
allotted five units.
The English department has undergone a complete re-uniting of
their courses within the past 10 years. They decided to raise all
their courses to five units.
“We increased all our courses from four to five units to
make sure students get credit for the amount of work they put
in,” said Ebelia Hernandez, an English undergraduate
counselor.
In the engineering school, course units vary and courses are
allotted a maximum of four units, which will not be changing
anytime soon.
“We considered re-uniting and determined that it would not
be in the best interest of our students and their education,”
said Adrienne Lavine, vice chairwoman of the Academic Senate and
professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.
Lavine said students in the engineering school must obtain a
certain amount of skill and knowledge in their major before they
graduate and become trained engineers and that the number of units
has little to do with that.
To obtain a degree in the engineering school, students take
between 182 and 205 units.
A typical course in the school of engineering has five hours of
classroom time, Lavine said.
“I basically think if they are going to keep the
engineering program a four-year plan, they can’t re-unit
courses,” said Eileen Aghnami, a fourth-year civil
engineering student and president of the UCLA chapter of the
American Society of Civil Engineers.
Students in other majors feel that the amount of work they put
into a course is sometimes not adequately reflected in the units
they receive for it.
Third-year biology student Lona Kwan said lab work is not
limited to hours spent inside the laboratory, and that labs require
a fair amount of outside work as well.
Keeping that in mind, Kwan does not think the unit amount for
science courses should be raised, because science students tend to
quickly reach their unit maximum.
Many students and professors agree that it may be in
students’ best interest if units remain the same so they can
graduate within four years and not go over their allotted amount of
units.
“Sometimes I wish that all classes were worth less units
so I wouldn’t hit my maximum allowed units so quickly,”
Kwan said.