[Pols-l] Faculty Meeting Friday Dec 3 11:00 am and Changing Course Numbers

[Kennedy, John James]

Hello,



I hope you are well.  For the last faculty meeting of the semester, I want to discuss and vote on changing the course numbers for most of the POLS classes to lower course numbers (from 600-500 to 300-400).  Here is why I am asking for this proposal.



It has come to my attention that over the last few semesters we have had dwindling enrollments in the 600 level classes. One of the reasons for this reduction in enrollments is due the order in which students enroll in classes (i.e. 600 level classes are at the end of the undergraduate course the list). In addition, students are less likely to take 600 level courses for fear that it will more difficult than a 500 or 300 level class. I checked with our UG advisor Jordan and he confirms this problem. I also checked against other departments such as SOC, PSYC, PUAD and COMS. These departments have the bulk of their classes listed between 200 and 500. For example, PUAD is mostly 300 and 400, PSYC and SOC are mostly 300 to 500 and COMS mostly 200-300 (also see the links below).  It sems like other departments have been making these changes over the last few years (before the pandemic).  My suggestion is that POLS make the course number changes as well.



I have been working with Kevin (Undergraduate Director) and Mike looking over the course numbers and changing these from 600 and 500 to 300 and 400, but keeping a few 600 level sections for KU Core Goal 6 classes. There is no significant difference between the 300-400 level classes (just like there was not a significant difference between 500-600 classes). We have attempted to keep the number similar and course titles remain unchanged. For graduate students, we can have them take the 300-400 level classes as graduate topics courses (789, 769 and 719) with permission from the instructor.  I have attached the list of courses in the Excel spread sheet.



The reason for this change is clear. We are potentially losing student credit hours (SCH). While the department is in good shape regarding majors for now, we have seen some drop in enrollments. Also given the current environment in the College and University regarding the importance of SCH, it is important for the department to get ahead of this.



We will have a Zoom faculty meeting on Friday, December 3 at 11:00 am. I will send the Zoom invitation. Let me know if you have any questions in the meantime.



Take Care,

John





https://sociology.ku.edu/sociology-courses

https://catalog.ku.edu/liberal-arts-sciences/psychology/ba-bgs-psychology/ba/

https://kupa.ku.edu/curriculum-ba-puad

https://coms.ku.edu/course-information


John James Kennedy, Professor
Chair of the Political Science Department
University of Kansas
Office: Blake Hall, Room 521
Phone: 785-864-9025
E-mail: kennedy1 at ku.edu
Webpage: https://www.johnjameskennedy.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ku.edu/pipermail/pols-l/attachments/20211118/41984da5/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: POLS Course Number Migration_Final Nov 18.xlsx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
Size: 13494 bytes
Desc: POLS Course Number Migration_Final Nov 18.xlsx
URL: <https://lists.ku.edu/pipermail/pols-l/attachments/20211118/41984da5/attachment-0001.xlsx>