While the current system works fairly well for lecture courses, these same benefits do not translate to three-hour seminars as easily because seminars meet only once a week. If one wished to shop two Tuesday afternoon seminars, one would have to skip an entire week’s worth of class for each in order to make an educated decision. For most students and professors, skipping one week is too costly and thus discouraged. To remedy this situation, the University should implement a practice of limiting three-hour seminars to only ninety minutes for the first week and having two introduction classes rather than just one. Such a system would allow students to attend a half-seminar in each class for the first week and then select a seminar.
The benefits of such a system would be manifold. First, allowing students to enroll in the seminar that most interests them will lead to more prepared, engaged classroom discussion which is the lifeblood of a seminar. Moreover, given that seminars tend to have a narrower focus than lecture courses, the ability to shop a number of different options becomes even more important. Second, although some professors may protest that such a schedule would prevent them from covering as much material in the first week, most seminars already either end early the first week or make inefficient use of the full three hours given that most students haven’t completed all of the readings. Sacrificing this initial discussion in favor of a better end product seems like the better option. Logistically, this system should work even more smoothly than the status quo, for while many seminars are currently overcrowded with students on the waitlist during the first week, this half-seminar system will likely lower attendance at each individual session while still enabling students on a waitlist to attend the first seminar should they ultimately enroll. True to the current spirit of the add/drop period, this change would make for better seminars and a better overall academic experience.
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