Course Schedules are out, and with them, a bleak testament to the degree of downsizing that YU plans to implement in 2015. There are still an impressive 364 classes listed on the schedule, leaving enough choices for an ambitiously curious student to fill her schedule fifty-two times. But as it stands now, the list is short 57 classes from last year, or a whopping -13%. (By comparison, Fall 2014 had seven more classes than its predecessor). Hopefully, late-entry classes will mitigate the deficit.
The class drops were spread pretty uniformly across departments, but the biggest losers this semester appear to be the Bio and English sections, which are down by six and eight classes, respectively. In English, the Stern administration seems to have decided to drop all of its short-term Comp and Rhetoric adjuncts in favor of classes taught by longer-contract English teachers. As with last year, Freshman Honors Seminar is also hibernating for the spring, hopefully to emerge again next autumn. In the vanishingly small Computer Science Department, hopes for a Web Development class remain unfulfilled.
Stern is also losing a few teachers this semester. Notably, Dr. Shira Weiss’s sabbatical leave has made a big impact on the already small Jewish Philosophy department, while Math Chair Professor Otway’s leave has removed advance calculus options from the schedule. Professor Gurock, a veteran Jewish History teacher, is also absent from the list.
But not all departments have lost out this spring. The Education Department is hosting a new teacher, Elaine Bloom, to teach Foundations of Early Childhood Education. History and Sociology have also made small gains, with Dr. Farber returning to teach Sociological Theories and Methods of Social Research.
Though the impact of downsizing was spread somewhat evenly across all the departments, humanities (excepting English) and education classes fared better than mathematics or Jewish studies this semester. Whether this is a seasonal maneuver or the beginnings of a liberal arts trend remains to be seen.