Course listings confuse students
Outdated material, visiting professors cause discrepancies
By Kimberly Mackesy
Julie Edmunds had no idea what she had gotten herself into.
Through reading the course description in the UCLA General Catalog,
and speaking with her orientation counselor, she believed that
Astronomy 3 was a simple introduction to the stars. She realized
her mistake too late.
"I found out that the class was specific and mathematical. It
seemed like an upper-division astrophysics class," Edmunds said.
"The teacher was a visiting professor. I don’t think he even read
the catalog description of the class."
Many students say they can think back to similar situations in
their own experiences. Course descriptions listed in the UCLA
General Catalog often bear little or no resemblance to the actual
classes, students said.
Visiting professors, outdated course descriptions and the
bureaucracy involved in changing the catalog listings are some of
the causes for the discrepancies, said Leann Henning, a research
analyst and text editor for the UCLA General Catalog.
Any change made in a course description, be it as small as
changing the course number or as large as changing the entire
description, requires submission of a Request for Action on a
Course (RFAC) form, said Henning, who’s worked at UCLA for 17
years. The change requests submitted run the gamut of oddities,
Henning noted.
"Sometimes we get handwritten things from the professors. It’s
uncanny how many of them don’t even put in the grading basis," she
said. "Many times they don’t even list the type or hours for their
class. If it’s a four-unit class, we assume that it’s four hours of
lecture. If it’s not in the description, nine times out of 10 it
wasn’t in the (form)."
In order for a new course to be listed, the professor must
submit background information on the content of the course, a
syllabus, a reading list and information about the examinations,
Henning said.
Visiting professors come under criticism by some students as
another reason many courses don’t match their descriptions.
Oftentimes, students said visiting professors have a different
idea of what the curriculum for a class should be. At times, what
they teach may be something completely different from what the
students expect from reading the course description.
There is no university-wide system of quality control for
visiting professors. Appointments are decided on a departmental
basis, and each department can have its own specific requirements
of its visiting professors, officials said. The stringency of the
requirements varies from department to department.
Jennifer Perlstein, an administrative assistant in the English
department, said visiting professors and lecturers are voted upon
by the Executive Committee of the English department. An ad is
placed in The Chronicle for Higher Education or The MLA Job
Bulletin. All appointments of visiting professors are approved or
disapproved by the Dean of Humanities.
"As far as I understand, the department chair decides on the
basis of curricular need," said Joseph Vaughan, the chief
administrative officer for Humanities Group Five. "(Visiting
professors) are hired to teach the course as described in the
catalog, but most of our catalog descriptions in the philosophy
department are pretty open as to what can be taught."
Even though each department has its own methods of regulating
the quality of its visiting professors, not all students are
pleased with the outcome.
"I know that there’s been a concern expressed at several levels
that visiting professors don’t teach the course as it should be
taught," said Norbert Martinez, an administrative assistant in the
Academic Senate executive office.
Meanwhile, publication’s administrators struggle to keep UCLA’s
catalog updated.
The Academic Publications office receives over 1,000 requests
annually. The volume of forms received, coupled with the amount of
forms that do not include all of the necessary information, results
in a backlog of course descriptions. At times, descriptions that
are not received in time do not make it into the Schedule of
Classes, officials said.
"(In those instances) the course doesn’t get listed at all
unless the department decides to spend the money to put an ad in
The Bruin," Henning explained.
Checking Orion, which is updated daily, was Hennings best advice
on how to stay up on current class listings and instructors (listed
as "staff" when the professor is not decided on at the time of
publication).
Keeping a handle on classes is even more difficult because
departments are under no obligation to keep their course
descriptions up to date, Henning said.
"We can’t force them to change outdated course descriptions,"
Henning said, adding that most of the larger departments are good
about updating them. "When they get around to it, they do it. There
are certain instances where our hands are tied."
Changing something in the catalog can be a lengthy process at
times.
"It took a year and a half to obtain authorization to change all
usage of the word ‘handicapped’ to ‘disabled,’" Henning said,
adding that authorization had to come from UC President Jack
Peltason.
In some departments, the number of professors who might teach a
certain course during the year may reach between five and 10,
Henning said.
This year, the number of professors listed next to a course
description was limited to three. Next year’s catalog will not have
professors listed next to each course, because each department can
change instructors each quarter.