Cramming Gets Literal

By ADAM EMERSON The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 27, 2007

TAMPA - Workers at the University of South Florida recently spent two weeks counting chairs in every classroom.

Starting today, students will fill many of those classrooms to their maximum capacity. Budget cuts forced administrators to cut 100 jobs and freeze most hiring this summer, enlarging classes that already were among the biggest in the nation.

Workers never took the step of tallying the number of chairs in previous years.

"But if we're going to be running at capacity, we need to make sure we have enough of them and that none are broken," said Glen Besterfield, USF's assistant dean of undergraduate studies.

Class sizes will be one visible change USF students see when they return to school today. Administrators cut library and computer lab hours and eliminated the jobs of workers, from cashiers to classroom professors.

In most cases, the effect will be minimal. While some lecture halls may fill with hundreds more students, classrooms that normally seat 25 to 30 may grow by just a few, Besterfield said. With increasing standards for admission, the university doesn't expect undergraduate enrollment at the Tampa campus to grow much beyond the 28,000 enrolled last year.

Administrators also kept most of their cuts away from instruction and avoided trimming the number of course offerings. Faculty will travel to fewer conferences and subscribe to fewer journals. College deans won't replace old computers or buy extra projectors.

Those moves allowed USF to maintain the number of advisers who guide students toward graduation, Besterfield said.

But the shield protecting the classroom soon may fall. Lawmakers meet in September to decide whether to cut the state budget even deeper. Most educators expect to lose more aid, and warn that cuts will reach academic programs.

"If the budget cuts get bigger, then we could be in some trouble," Honors College Dean Stuart Silverman said.

A 4 percent cut in state money already has forced USF to trim about $14 million. The university is planning for cuts as high as 10 percent, which could force administrators to cut an additional $24 million.

Packed Like 'Sardines'

USF Provost Renu Khator ordered her staff to cap classrooms at their maximum level to run them more efficiently. In one way, that's good news for students who otherwise might be shut out of a full class they need for graduation.

But faculty members worry that a packed lecture hall will frustrate students unable to engage with an instructor.

Robert Welker, an associate accounting professor, recently learned his business law class that normally would be capped at 250 students will have to accommodate 419.

Welker says the spike will do little to change the way he teaches. He worries, though, about the line of students with questions that will form after class. Those at the back of the line will just walk away and never come back for answers, he said.

"It's about quality of education," Welker said. "They're not going to sit here like sardines and listen to you talk."

For Quinn Lundquist, 19, the only way to get questions answered among hundreds of students is by meeting with the professor after class. The premedicine student from St. Petersburg comes to big classes 15 minutes early to get a seat up front, but the din of 150 students in a chemistry lecture still makes it difficult to hear.

"It's harder to communicate, and you don't get any one-on-one with the professor," Lundquist said.

Classes have been added at odd times as well. Chemistry labs, which long have been strained by student demand, are running on Friday nights. The university is offering 12 classes at the movie theaters at nearby University Mall, including a popular course on human sexuality. Classes for some courses there will house about 250 students, with the capacity to seat 150 more.

Credit Or Debit Only

Other changes are minor, but administrators acknowledge they add up to an altered picture of student life.

The main library in Tampa now will close at midnight instead of 2 a.m. most days, and officials nixed Sunday morning hours, library director Phyllis Ruscella wrote in an e-mail this month. Computer lab hours also have been cut back.

A bigger change comes for students carrying cash. Most jobs for cashiers have been eliminated on the campus.

Students wanting parking permits, ID cards or health center services soon will have the option of paying only with credit or debit cards if they shop directly at the offices that provide those services, said Nick Trivunovich, the university's controller.

Cash will be accepted at a central office on campus. Other cashiers either will be transferred to other jobs or laid off, Trivunovich said.

The grim budget picture has university officials planning for the worst. The provost has ordered a task force to examine which programs could face cuts or consolidation.

Meanwhile, few expect that a tuition increase set by the state's university oversight board for the spring will happen without a challenge from the Legislature. The Board of Governors in July ordered tuition increased by up to 5 percent at Florida's 11 public universities, defying lawmakers who claim they alone have the authority to raise student costs.

University leaders already are planning to freeze freshman enrollment for the next three years, which means thousands of qualified students will be refused entry.

Besterfield, however, says he is trying to focus on today. While leaner days may come, he says, many students may miss the newest changes when they return.

For now, he's busy flipping through the pages of a report, looking for broken chairs.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.