Summer School Course Threshold Guidance

Endorsed September 26, 2019, by the COE Leadership Council

Summer School provides an important opportunity for undergraduate students to catch up on critical courses they need before the subsequent academic year and for graduate students, particularly part-time graduate students, to make significant headway on their programs of study. Because part-time graduate students are often seeking to maximize their course load in the Summer, it is important that we offer courses and schedule them in a manner that meets their needs and that we minimize changes to the schedule as changes have a domino effect for students and faculty alike.

Because the university now requires the posting of courses so early in the academic year, it is possible to forecast enrollments much earlier than we have been able to do in prior years. Department heads requested guidance on high-demand courses and when additional sections of such courses could be initiated. The following is a proposal for the decision points for adding extra section(s) of courses.

1. Departments should routinely visit the Summer enrollment counts throughout the Spring semester and note courses where the cap on enrollment is nearly or has been reached.
2. Thresholds: Set the initial course maximum at whatever is typical for this type of course (say 20). When the section is full and the waitlist reaches 60% of the course maximum (12), establish a new section.
3. By April 1, send requests for the second section of the course to Andy Garber.
4. When a second section is added, the first section cap should be set to full to drive students into the second section.