Wilson School ready to expand

Dean of the Wilson School Cecilia Rouse explained that the school will be able to handle the size and make adjustments accordingly. The Wilson School has looked at different scenarios and is prepared for whatever class size comes its way, she said.

Rouse explained that the Wilson School will have time to adjust to the increase in class size between this spring, when students declare their intended majors, and next fall.

“That still gives us a few months between the spring and the fall to get organized and to recruit the faculty that we need to teach the courses that we need to be taught the following fall,” Rouse said. “I think there’s time for us to adjust to the numbers coming in.”

She added that the biggest challenge will be the smaller courses that have to scale with the number of students.

Politics department chair Nolan McCarty, who led the year-long review of the Wilson School and ultimately recommended ending selective admission, mentioned that a vast amount of uncertainty surrounds the changes to the Wilson School. He said he believes the school will be ready to accept the increase in numbers, but it’s all still tentative.

“I don’t think we’re too concerned that we won’t be ready. We’ll have to do some adjustments on the fly, but it’s not like the Wilson School is a fully autonomous school,” McCarty said.

With the possible increase in enrollment for the Wilson School, there are also questions as to how a larger Wilson School will affect other similar majors, such as politics and economics.

McCarty said that many of the Wilson School students are politics majors in terms of their concentrations within the Wilson School, and now it’s a question of whether the students will choose the interdisciplinary route of the Wilson School or pursue their primary interest by joining the politics department.

“We’re really prepared for either outcome,” McCarty said.

Rouse said she expects that a majority of the sophomore Wilson School students will be from disciplines that are associated with the school, allowing professors from those departments to serve as possible thesis advisers.

“Because the Wilson School mostly employs joint faculty between economics, politics and sociology, it’s a fairly easy matter to make adjustments in short term,” McCarty explained.