Course Enrollment Guidelines

Background and Context:

Course Enrollment Guidelines are designed to allow for a reasonable balance between meeting the needs of students and responsible use of our finite institutional resources.  Considered across academic units, running low-enrolled courses has a significant negative impact on our budget, and ultimately diminishes our capacity to fund other priorities.

In some cases, low-enrolled courses have unintended impacts on, or fundamentally alter, the nature of the learning experience (i.e., fewer perspectives available for students, diminished or absence of opportunities for small group work, etc.).

Not having guidelines in this area makes planning and decision-making difficult and exacerbates inconsistencies across academic units and individual faculty.

Guidelines:

• A course is considered low-enrolled if there are fewer than 8 students in the course.
• Any course that has fewer that 8 students enrolled by the time priority registration ends for a particular term will be flagged for closer examination by the Academic Dean’s office.  A report of low enrolled courses will be sent to the respective Deans for communication with department chairs/program directors/faculty.
• If a course remains low-enrolled, it will be cancelled if it does not meet one of the exception situations described below.  Every effort is made to make this decisions within a timeframe that allows affected students to enroll in other courses and affected faculty to make other plans.  The final decision to cancel a course lies with the Dean of the School in which the course is prefixed, in consultation with the VPAA.
• In cases of cross-listed or cross-program courses, decisions about cancelling or continuing with courses must occur in consultation with program directors/chairs and the dean of the cross-listed school.
• If cancelling a low-enrolled course results in a full-time faculty member falling below the standard 12-credit load for a semester, the faculty member (in consultation with his/her chair and dean) will have the following options available to them:

       1st Option:  Reassignment to another course:

       2nd Option:  Make up the underload credits in one of the next two semesters, sessions, or terms following the underload.

       3rd Option:  Assignment to another necessary College duty.

Any of the above options must be brought forward by the director/chair (where appropriate) for approval by the dean of the school.  Deans have support for negotiating when unique circumstances exist.  Requests from deans must be approved by the VPAA.

• Load planning within academic units will happen on an annual cycle, and it is the responsibility of deans of the schools to facilitate an annual planning process in order to make well-informed decisions about course offerings.

Exceptions:

Examples of situations or conditions that may merit considerations of exception to the standard practices may include but are not limited to the following:

• Documented cases of students needing the course during the particular academic term in order to graduate on time, where no other reasonable alternatives for fulfilling the degree requirement exist.
• Courses that are intentionally designed to be enrolled below eight (i.e., a clinical, research courses, certain COR 2 or 3 offerings).
• An established community partnership exists that would be at risk without a course running.
• Planning and past evidence indicates that enrollment in the course will likely increase by the time the term begins.
• Courses that are offered as part of an academic staff member’s existing position description and for which they are not typically given extra compensation.
• Courses with sections that are offered through different delivery methods and are determined not to be able to be combined.

When the decision is made not to cancel a low-enrolled course due to one of the preceding exceptions, load and/or compensation typically will not be adjusted.  If a decision is made to not cancel a low-enrolled course for reasons beyond these exceptions, load and/or compensation may be adjusted to reflect the level of course enrollment.