By Hemesh Patel
Daily Bruin Reporter
This year, more than 70 English classes and about 28 courses in
other departments have changed or will change the amount of units
they are worth.
“There are two ways to pay students ““ qualitatively
by grades and quantitatively by units,” said Thomas Wortham,
chair of the department of English.
In addition to an overwhelming number unit changes in the
English department, courses in anthropology, chemistry, and French
will also increase units so more students can be full time and
graduate early.
One unit represents three hours of work for the average student,
Wortham said.
While Alan Grinnel, chair of the physiological sciences
department, said he does not see his department making sweeping
changes, he does anticipate seeing more classes raise their units
so more students can be recognized as attending UCLA full-time.
The process of raising units starts with faculty being urged to
consider the status of their classes in terms of workload, Grinnel
said.
A class is considered for unit changes if it requires a
disproportionate amount of work, or if it could reasonably
introduce more lab work or writing exercises. A proposal then goes
through the department and on to the Academic Senate.
The Department of English conducted a poll two years ago, asking
students how much time they spent for the class. But not all
classes that made the unit change were included in the survey.
“A significant number of sections were viewed as
representative of the whole,” Wortham said.
Grinnel he is not aware of any opposition in his department and
he thinks students in general feel they would like to graduate in a
shorter amount of time and get classes in a more timely manner.
But some professors, such as Malina Stefanovska of the French
department, which changed four of its classes from four to five
units, had mixed feelings about results of this process.
“I do think this is happening to try to get students out
faster while doing less work,” she said. “But these
fewer classes will require more work.”
Science students say they are not really finding the increase in
units rewarding, as it neither helps nor hinders the frustrations
of academic life.
“All units tell you is whether or not it is really hard,
five units means its a difficult class and a two unit class must be
easy,” said Reshma Kapoor, a third-year computer science and
engineering student.
She said the important thing is fulfilling the requisites and
sometimes the amount of units allotted to certain classes can be
misleading.
“Some labs are really time consuming because you go in
thinking its only a two unit, but then you start slacking and
things come down on you,” Kapoor said.
Other professors, including some in the English department, do
not feel the measures were necessary.
“My thoughts are that it perhaps should have not happened
across the board, because some courses are obviously more difficult
than others,” said Edward Condren, professor of English.
His class on “The Canterbury Tales” requires
students to translate Middle English to modern English as well as
analyzing that period’s poetry.
He said this might have something to do with keeping up to pace,
in terms of the number of full-time students, with other
universities such as Berkeley.
Grinnel, who saw two of the courses in his department make the
change, agreed.
“It is my impression that Berkeley comes closer to what
the university defines as a full-time student,” he said.
The university is anticipating more incoming students in the
next 10 years ““ about 4,000, perhaps 2,500 of whom will be
undergraduates, Grinnel said
The change in units would allow the university system as a whole
to absorb the large influx that is the second generation of baby
boomers, with as little overcrowding as possible, he said.
“I think the basic objective of this is to have a faster
through-put and have more students graduating in four years,”
he said.
This was one of the concerns that played a role in changing the
units in so many classes in the English department.
“We want our students to have a good education without
having to wait around for seven years,” Wortham said.
“English students are doing 15, 16, 17, even 18 hours of
work, according to polls conducted by the department.”
He said so many English classes made the shift because the
department’s courses require extra reading and writing
outside of lecture.
Wortham said his department differed from others since it has
fewer major requirements, and was able to make sweeping changes
more easily.
Some students majoring in the sciences see the English
department making the changes as unfair.
“It’s favoritism and it goes to show that North
Campus majors will get out in two years and engineering majors will
have to stay around for five or six years,” said Julien
Cohen-Waeber, a third-year engineering geology student.
“The English classes I have taken did not have a bad
workload and they were worth five units, but if science classes add
another unit, it is likely more work will be added,” he
added.
2000-2001 UNIT CHANGES Over 70 English classes
recently changed the amount of units they are worth. These courses
will do the same by Summer 2000. Course
Course Anthropology M154P French 114C Computer
Science 146 Life Sciences 2 Chemistry & Biochemistry 144 MCD
Biology 144 Chicano Studies 163 MCD Biology 138 Community Health
Sciences 130 MCD Biology 100 Classics 41W Ancient Near East 10W
Comparative Literature 100 Physiological Science 196 Economics M40
Physiological Science M148 Education 199 Program In Computing 197
Electrical Engineering 110 Statistics M13/ OBEE M22 Folklore &
Mythology M125 Statistics M11 French 12 World Arts & Cultures
M215 French 114A World Arts & Cultures 1 French 114B World Arts
& Cultures 117 SOURCE: Academic Senate Original graphic by ADAM
BROWN/Daily Bruin Web adaptation by ROBERT LIU/Daily Bruin Senior
Staff