Low-enrolled Courses Policy

POLICY

The minimum standard enrollment for courses to run at The College of St. Scholastica is 10 students. No adjuncts should be hired to teach a course with fewer than 10 students without disciplinary imperative (e.g. it is a required course for a major or highly specialized content). 

Courses with fewer than 10 students should be canceled unless the course is required for a major and cannot be rescheduled. If a course with less than 10 students runs, it will not be recompensed as an overload, but instead as an individual offering or independent study.

May be combined with another class in a related area e.g. graduate and undergraduate sections of a similar course.

Some courses are, by their nature, have low enrollment and should, therefore, be excluded from these calculations. These courses must be approved by the dean. 

PROCEDURE

  1. In accordance with the College policy and with the dean, department chairs and program directors should establish minimum enrollment standards for their programs, depending on:
    • The level and timing of course (e.g. lower-division, upper-division, AY or summer.) 
    • Disciplinary differences. 
  2. Department chairs and program directors should review all courses that do not meet the College’s minimum requirement.  
    • Before a semester commences, department chairs and program directors should develop a “watch list” of low enrolled classes. Consider checking to see how many students have not yet enrolled due to financial holds which may affect courses on the watch list.
    • If a course consistently fails to meet minimum enrollment standards, department chairs and program directors should consider alternate year scheduling or elimination of the course.
    • Recognizing the new courses need time to build a student following, low enrolled new courses should be given a sunset date after which time, if a student audience has not been established for the course, it will be removed from departmental offerings.
  3. Department chairs and program directors should establish a standard expected enrollment per faculty member so that large courses could off-set the occasional small enrolled course.
    • A minimum amount of SCH (student credit hours) generated by each faculty person so that a single low-enrolled course could be offset by larger enrollments in other classes. A SCH generation of 240 hours per semester would be standard for a faculty member teaching 20 students in three 4 credit courses. (Preferred)
    • A minimum headcount generated by each faculty person.
    • Same options as above but calculated by the department as a whole rather than an individual faculty member.
  4. When a class is canceled due to low enrollment, there are several reassignment options for full-time faculty. The reassignment option must be approved by the dean. 
    • The faculty member may “owe” a course the following semester.
    • The full-time faculty member may replace a course taught by an adjunct.
    • The faculty member may merge two courses.
    • Assign other departmental duties if canceled outright or if allowed to run. 
    • Allow running as unpaid overload.
  5. Decisions on low-enrolled courses should be made 6 weeks prior to the start of the semester, when possible. 
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