Overfilling Classrooms Beyond Number of Seats/Fire Capacity
For the past 3 years classes have been filled above fire capacity. If it was 1 or 2 students this would be fine, but I've been in classes with around 10 (or more) extra people in them. It's frustrating to pay thousands of dollars to not be even guaranteed a seat in class. You have to fight to get a seat, and this is happening in everything from large lectures to classes in COMPUTER LABS. Professors are letting countless students blue slip in because they don't want to block their graduation schedule (as they should), but there is no support or infrastructure for making sure students can get in their necessary classes while keeping us safe. This semester I am in Machine Learning and they filled the class over by around 10 people. After a week of students sitting on the floor, they've just moved the class to a bigger room. This would be fine, but it's a course that requires a computer during the class, and we moved to a regular room. Now EVERY STUDENT is expected to bring their own personal computer. This is unfair. What about students that can't afford a laptop, or one light enough to lug around every T/TH? What about students that only have a home computer or a laptop that can't keep its charge for a full 75 minute class? This is detrimental and disruptive to our education, and this is not the first time this has been brought up. It's yet another symbol that Mines doesn't actually think about the well being of students--they just send out emails claiming they do.
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Anon
commented
To the message that claims PCJ is increasing students for more revenue is a blatantly false statement. Having worked in admissions and can confirm that we are trying to keep a steady size of undergraduate students and are in fact trying to increase the graduate school at Mines. The reason the last few years have had larger freshman class sizes is due to Mines admitting the same amount of students as before, but more students are committing to Mines. It is something that you cannot really avoid from an Admissions standpoint as you can't remove an acceptance offer. I would expect in the following year fewer students will be admitted since a higher percentage is committing, but I do now know as a fact for sure.
Hopefully, that clears things up for you a little bit.
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Anon
commented
The main problem is that they're trying to increase the number of students without actually having the room to accommodate them. This comes down to the President Johnson's decision of increasing the number of students to increase revenue.
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Alexandra Pollock
commented
This has happened to me in multiple attendance mandatory classes! In Fall 2018, PHGN200 overfilled (at least) the 10 am section by over 10 people. For over 2/3 of the classes, there were students lining the floor on both sides of the CTLM lecture hall. This was the semester after the Physics department just got CoorsTek too--which doesn't have a large lecture hall because Mines is moving toward "active learning with small class sizes." It's extremely frustrating as a student to see Mines get PR for it's innovative learning practices (like this article https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2019/06/10/10-signs-of-progress-in-engineering-for-the-earth-energy-and-environment/#136f24346bec) when that's actually far from what's happening with the majority of classes.