I'm sure many CUNY and Hunter students are in the same boat as the students quoted for the article below. Not having enough classes (or class sections) available means students end up paying more for college while getting shortchanged in their education. For some courses, especially languages, losing a semester means that both the student and the professor have to waste valuable class time on review instead of new material. Cutting class offerings also artificially lowers the 4-year graduation rate which I believe is still used in part to calculate the US News rankings, the 2004 edition of which is just out:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php While we may not put much stock in these rankings, they're nevertheless popular (why else would US News now charge for access to them?) and a reality that CUNY must deal with.
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New York Times
As State Colleges Cut Classes, Students Struggle to Finish
August 24, 2003
By GREG WINTER
The moment registration opens, Michele D. Hannah dives for courses with the fury of a fifth-year college student vexed by a constant riddle.
"When will I get the classes I need to graduate?" said Ms. Hannah, Class of "I have no idea" at the University of Iowa.
Classes have gotten so tight, or so scarce, that Ms. Hannah says she trolls the university's Web site like a day trader, checking every few hours for the stray course opening that might suddenly appear.
But it probably will not. At many public universities, grappling with record budget cuts and enrollments at the same time, the classroom is no longer being spared. After whittling away at staff, coaxing faculty members to juggle more classes, stripping sports teams and trusting aging roofs to hold out a few years longer, many public universities have reluctantly begun chopping away at academics, making it harder for students to graduate on time.
