Back in March, the UH Board of Regents were presented a report on faculty “productivity,” presented in the context of looking for ways to cut costs. The report and its findings were then featured by the Star-Advertiser (“UH officials look into productivity, Student-to-faculty ratios and class sizes are among factors studied in a new report“).
Here’s the lead paragraph from the S-A:
Nearly 20 percent of undergraduate courses at UH-Manoa have fewer than 10 students, says a new University of Hawaii report prepared as part of a push to find long-term opportunities for bringing down the cost of educating students.
The report backed up this and other findings with fancy charts and graphs.
But it turns out this key finding was, well, just wrong. It was based on faulty data which the UH administration overlooked because they failed to consult with faculty in the course of their research. Instead, Linda Johnsrud, UH executive vice president for academic affairs. sent the report directly to the Board of Regents. It was only when the Manoa Faculty Senate was finally able to examine the underlying data that errors were quickly spotted.
In May 2013, the Faculty Senate adopted a resolution “in response to the flawed report” citing specific errors.
The resolution asked UH system administrators “to publicly acknowledge the deficiencies already recognized in the report and to correct the final report, with the involvement of the Manoa administration and Manoa faculty….”
The resolution noted several errors relating to average class size at Manoa.
• Some classes can be taken for credit in more than one department. These cross-listed classes were double counted, each appearing as separate. In fact represent a single class with one instructor, but were treated by the report as separate classes, each with fewer students and its own instructor.
• Outreach College courses, which are administered and funded through a separate system, were included.
• Courses that are designed for small enrollment, including internships, field experiences, directed readings, music and arts were listed.
•Courses that many faculty teach above and beyond their normal course loads were also listed.
I’ve heard the actual number of small classes could be as low as 4-5 percent, but haven’t seen the numbers to back that up.
According to minutes of the September 16, 2013 meeting of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, “the incorrect slide” in the “Cost of Education” presentation made earlier to the Board of Regents “has been deleted.”
What isn’t yet clear is whether the regents have been informed of the error, or if it has otherwise been publicly acknowledged, as requested by the Senate resolution.
And I also wonder whether the Star-Advertiser will find an occasion to note the error, which was reported so prominently in its March 23 story.
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You might add that in some cases having a relatively small class size could be important, for example, in providing seniors with an opportunity to graduate on time.
(The following article is not about class size per se, but about providing essential classes to upper division students so they can graduate on time.)
http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2013/09/12/19884-professor-shortage-knocks-two-dozen-uh-students-off-track-for-graduation/
Also, the quality of education is linked to small class size. Here is a list of ten American universities with small class size provided by US News. Four of them (Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Chicago) are private elite schools.
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2013/09/24/10-national-universities-where-most-classes-are-small
The same local politicians and state university administrators who are so stingy when it comes to class size send their own kids to these schools to get a first-class education which is based, among other things, on small class size.
The Civil Beat article cited on the “professor shortage” was resolved within a day of the Civil Beat publication. In this case, a replacement had been lined up but there were problems between RCUH and UH on the funding source. More policy issues on how to pay the person than not having someone to teach the class.
Yet another example of UH bureaucrats stepping on their collective d!ck.
Further evidence, UH generally and Manoa specifically is not to be trusted in any way, especially its departing president and current Manoa Chancellor Apple.
Truth be damned, they aver.Let’s see if super secret UH regents have an response to this newest blunder.
This is certainly in no way the fault of any current UH-Manoa administrator; the Manoa administrators were apparently not even consulted in the collection of the data. I believe that this particular cock-up seems to be entirely the property of the System VPAA’s office.
Yes, it appears you are correct. That faculty senate resolution pointed out that Manoa administrators were apparently not consulted.
Either this was just plain sloppiness or an effort to make the faculty look bad and undeserving as contract renewal comes round. With Greenwood departed, we may see a different approach from Lasner who has been at UH for decades and may have a longer term view of UH than Greenwood did.
This mistake came out of Johnsrud’s office. She appears to be a candidate for the presidency but perhaps she or others will have second thoughts.
I know of one class for future nurses with an enrollment of 70.