As the University continues to grow, so does students’ awareness of the growing pains—specifically in class sizes.
“[The growth] has certainly pressed the limits,” said Larry Bowen, associate director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. Bowen also teaches one class a semester, Mathematics 110.
“I’m not sure if limits on class sizes have gone overboard, but if a class was limited at, say, 60, in the past, you would have had only maybe 53 or 54 even though it would hold 60,” he said. “Now you’re going to have 60. Whatever the limit was, the growth has made sure that [class sizes] were there.”
Bowen graduated from here in 1979 and joined the faculty in 1981. He mentioned that certain facility developments, like the construction of the Mathematics Technology Learning Center in Tutwiler Hall, correlate to changes in class sizes.
“When I first started teaching, the Math Lab wasn’t there, and we just had the classrooms in Gordon Palmer,” he said. “No room in that building other than the auditorium would hold, at that time, more than about 40 people.
“The Math Lab has changed things now…[mathematics classes] don’t necessarily meet but once a week, and maybe some of the upper level courses have gotten smaller.”
Matt Garmon, a junior majoring in accounting, agreed with Bowen’s idea that upper level classes, even in majors other than mathematics, are getting smaller.
“It seems like they’ve been getting a little smaller as I’m getting into my upper level classes, but starting off, they were huge,” he said. “They were around 200 people.”
Amber Moore, a sophomore majoring in business, said through Honors College, she has only experienced small classes until this year.
“The classes I’ve had in the past have always been something like 15 students,” she said. “So, this is the first semester I’ve had huge classes.”
Moore said she sees Honors College class sizes staying the same and noted that she mainly chose to attend UA because of the University Honors Program.
She said, her entry-level classes this year, like Geography 101 and Accounting 210, seem large.
“They’re at least 150 [students]. They’re in the big lecture classes.”
Class sizes seem to vary across the board, according to Austin Curry, a freshman majoring in biology, who is taking all entry-level courses.
“Some are just about like high school with about 30 to 40 people,” he said. “In my English class, though, there’s about a hundred in there…I’ve never seen that before.”
Larry Bowen said he’s seen freshman class sizes consistently growing.
“Definitely with the major universities, the class sizes of at least the freshmen have been creeping up for years,” he said.
“The rooms won’t hold more than they’ll hold,” he said. “As much as you want more people in there, the room will only hold that much.”
