On Thursday, a professor kicked 23 students out of a biochemistry class because they were not chemistry majors.
The first few days of school brought many students confusion as they sought out their new classes for the semester. However, one class of students had more cause to bewilderment than most. At 11 a.m. Thursday, students walked into their first day of biochemistry in room 2231 of Hand Lab.
Within the first five minutes of class, professor Edwin Lewis allegedly told 23 of those students they had to leave, despite being registered for the class.
Anna Tedford, a senior biological sciences major and a student in the class, recounted the event.
“As soon as he walked into the classroom, he closed the door and said, ‘Some of y’all are not going to like hearing this, but all of y’all who aren’t chemistry majors have to get out,'” Tedford said.
Tedford said Lewis told the students the section was meant to be for chemistry majors only, but there was an error resulting in other majors being added. According to Tedford, Lewis said the students had to get out and talk to their department head or dean to be added to another class or section.
Tedford said one of the other students followed up this demand with a question, asking if biochemistry majors were included and Lewis said the section was strictly for chemistry majors. This response resulted in biochemistry majors being removed from the biochemistry class.
Eleven of the students who were forced out of the class marched through campus to find a solution.
Tedford said she was baffled by the last-minute announcement because most of the students had registered for the class during the spring registration period and some had already purchased the book.
Those afflicted faced added stress from the skewed schedule, as no longer having the required class put graduation and potential job opportunities on the line.
“One person there said he had a job opportunity lined up for when he was supposed to graduate in December,” Tedford said. “If he did not take this class, not only would he not be able to graduate on time, he could lose that potential job.”
Later Thursday afternoon, Professor and Department Head Jeffrey Dean sent out an email to address the issue and claim responsibility for the error.
“Enrollment for that section was supposed to be restricted to POD (Permission of Department), so that it could be limited to chemistry majors,” Dean stated in the email. “It was not and I failed to note that the POD designation was not added when I checked the BCH course list over the summer. The chemistry-specific section of BCH 4603 was offered for the first time last year and so we are still learning how best to manage a course offered cooperatively between departments and colleges.”
Such technical errors, though uncommon, are not unheard of. However, the problem is usually found by the professor of the class and is typically addressed before it creates a predicament, unlike what happened Thursday.
“The problem of not limiting enrollment to POD happens from time to time, but is usually caught and corrected in advance when the instructor checks their rolls and notices students on the roster who appear to be enrolled erroneously,” Dean stated. “I cannot speak as to why Dr. Lewis did not notice this or decided not to inform us so that we could contact you in advance and try to correct the problem. Nor can I say why Dr. Lewis chose to behave and speak to you in the way he did when the class met.”
Lewis declined to comment on the issue.
As the student population at MSU continues to expand, the university will be hard pressed to avoid and prepare contingency plans for incidents such as the issue of BCH 4603, Section 2.
“There are always lessons to be learned from episodes such as this,” Dean said. “We were caught a bit off guard this year by a large increase in enrollment for this particular class–about 25 percent from Fall 2017–which meant that we didn’t have excess capacity in the regular section of the course to absorb the 23 displaced students… We believe these large enrollments are likely to continue in the future, and we are now looking at whether offering two full sections of the course needs to become a regular part of business starting in the Fall 2019.”
Though the incident was most assuredly disconcerting and frustrating for both students and faculty, the department worked quickly to find an effective solution.
“In this case, I directly contacted all 23 affected students within a couple of hours of learning the details of what transpired and laid out the options we faced moving forward,” Dean said. “They received four additional direct messages from me in the following 20 hours, which was the point in time when the Registrar’s Office formally opened an additional section of the course for them at the same day and time as the one they originally chose… The whole thing took less than 24 hours from the start of the problem until the full solution was in place.”
The students will keep their schedule, thanks to the new section that will be taught under professor Aswarthy Rai, who was hired by the department last year to help with the demand for courses under the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.