VES Class Sizes Spark Controversy

Already among the smallest concentrations available to undergraduates, Visual and Environmental Studies has seen a steady decline in enrolled concentrators over recent years. However, lack of interest may not be the reason behind this decline; in many cases, students who might otherwise have explored the concentration are discouraged by the difficulty of enrollment. Largely due to the department’s preference for intimate seminars, many VES classes have limited enrollments and are notoriously hard to get into as a freshman or non-concentrator.

The competitive process of being admitted into VES classes often presents an obstacle for prospective concentrators, who are frequently unable to take classes in the department until their sophomore year. “It was frustrating primarily because I’m not 100 percent sure if I’m going to concentrate in VES, but I’m very interested in it,” says Kennedy F. Edmonds ’17, who was waitlisted and eventually rejected from an introductory VES class. “The fact that it’s so difficult to take classes in that department makes it difficult for me to figure out whether or not…that is the concentration I want to pursue.” While Edmonds was advised by an administrator in the VES department that taking his first VES class in his sophomore year would not interfere with his ability to concentrate, he still feels as if he would be declaring with “blind optimism.”

For graduate students in the Film and Visual Studies program, the VES Department’s meager course offerings translate to a shortage of teaching jobs and resources. “[The VES Department] has limited teaching availability and tends to be relieved when people like me find teaching in other departments,” says Katie B. Kohn, a Ph.D student who is currently working as a teaching fellow for the Folklore and Mythology class, “History of Witchcraft and Charm Magic.” However, Alfred Guzzetti, a professor in the VES Department, notes that many graduate students in the Film and Visual Studies program lack the experience needed to teach studio classes. “Adding more sections is very problematic because there’s no graduate program in the making of art…. [Film and Visual Studies] is not a making degree, [it’s] a scholarly degree.”

According to Kohn, the VES Department also tends to be very possessive over its resources and hesitant to share them externally. When Kohn asked an administrator for permission to use an unclaimed VES classroom, she was told the classrooms had to remain available should the department need them. Furthermore, Kohn believes that the VES Department is not taking advantage of opportunities for expansion. “It seems that they actively want to keep themselves small, private, elite in a way. Professors encourage that because they really want to have a certain type of student, the way that they screen so heavily. The graduate students in our program on the whole don’t understand that mentality and don’t understand how the administration doesn’t see it as hurtful to both undergraduates and graduates,” Kohn says. As a solution to limited-enrollment classes, she believes an introductory, lecture-style class should be offered to accommodate more students. “There needs to be an intermediary zone,” she says. “Like film history classes…anybody [who] has a computer can start to do something with no cost to the university—fairly short projects that are time-intensive but not unmanageable.”

According to Guzzetti, however, such lecture-style classes are detrimental to both professors and students. “They have existed, but it’s not proved possible to do them on a large scale,” he says. Even in small studio classes, the effects of adding an extra student are noticeable to Guzzetti. “At times when I’ve thought, ‘I really should take this 11th or 12th person,’ and I’ve done that, I’ve regretted it afterwards because everybody gets short shrift,” he explains. Current VES concentrator Thomas J. Barber ’15 shares the sentiment. “The big problem is that for a creative class, you need to keep it small. It’s not like math where you just teach a formula to 800 kids at the same time and that’s fine. You kind of need that intimate relationship with the professor,” he says.

However, Kohn and Guzzetti both agree that one of the largest issues is that it is difficult to predict which classes will attract heavy demand. The statistics that arrive through the College’s pre-term planning system usually tend to vary greatly from the actual enrollment—and without accurate predictions, Guzzetti says, there is very little the VES Department can do in immediate response.