Life sciences college will cap enrollment

In an attempt to curb spiking enrollment, the chemical and life sciences college will become a limited enrollment program next year, making it harder for students to get into the college.

Beginning next fall, freshman direct admits will need to meet a set of gateway requirements, and students will have to meet more qualifications to transfer into the college, which includes the biology and chemistry majors. The stricter requirements will reduce class sizes and better prepare students for the rigors of the majors offered, administrators said.

Under the new requirements, students interested in transferring into majors in CLFS will have to have a 2.7 grade point average and complete several introductory courses. Freshmen admitted to the college will have to complete a list of key courses within 45 credits of entering the university.

Enrollment in the college has risen steadily for several years, climbing from about 2,200 in fall of 2004 to about 2,800 last year, said Mahlon Straszheim, an interim associate provost who co-chaired a committee that recommended the change. At the same time, the number of faculty in the college has held steady, CLFS Associate Dean Robert Infantino said.

“The number of majors we have has grown to such a point that we don’t feel that we can provide the kind of courses we want or maintain the kind of interactions we want between faculty and students if we don’t address that imbalance,” Infantino said.

Besides easing the burden on faculty charged with teaching to mushrooming class sizes, the move will also ensure students are ready for the coursework, administrators said.

“That’s really what faculty are interested in,” Infantino said. “It’s a better-prepared audience.”

Chemistry and biochemistry professor Dorothy Beckett wrote in an e-mail that she thought the decision was a good idea and hoped it would “even out” the abilities of students in the college. As it is now, a wide range in student aptitude complicates teaching, she wrote.

But the “better prepared audience” will also be a smaller audience, meaning some interested students will not be able to enroll.

“When you impose limits on entry, entry becomes more competitive, and you’re able to serve less students,” Straszheim said.

There is not a specific enrollment target, Infantino said.

Even if money were available, Infantino said hiring more faculty to keep up with student enrollment is difficult to do because student enrollment varies and is not easy to predict. University-wide budget cuts have restricted hiring, but he added the decision is not a result of the university’s financial situation.

College officials have discussed how to meet increasing enrollment for the last six years, Infantino said. About six months ago, a committee composed of university faculty and administrators began to look into the issue, and Provost Nariman Farvardin approved the change in late August, Straszheim said.

Infantino and Straszheim said growing interest in the college has mirrored growing national interest in life sciences.

“Whenever the economy goes south ... people look toward any indicators in the market place that suggest that one sector of the market is more stable or potentially has more jobs than others,” Infantino said. “Right now if you listen to CNN, they seem to suggest that there is an increase in demand in health care fields.”

Dean Norma Allewell said the change would improve the academic quality of the college.

“This is something that we expect to be a win-win. It will enable more of our students to succeed,” Allewell said. “It will have the effect of reducing class size. It will avoid the unrestricted growth of the college at a time when funds are scarce.”

cox@umdbk.com