College Report

Fig. 1
What a bigger College means-so far

By 2006 Chicago will be home to 4,500 undergraduates. How does a larger College affect class size and teaching? In summer 2001 the University's Council on Teaching decided to find out. At that point, the College was halfway toward its goal: since 1996-97 its enrollment had gone up 10.5 percent, from 3,616 to 3,996. The council's findings, reported this past summer, were reassuring. First and foremost, College class sizes have not increased significantly: the average size has remained at 19 and the median at 15. Perhaps more important, fears that the College's growth would be met by increased reliance on graduate students and a shrinking share of faculty teaching have proved unfounded (see above). For the complete report, and the factors behind the facts, click here.

1. The former Harper/Schmidt instructors, Dickson instructors, and Collegiate assistant professors
2. Senior lecturers, lecturers, clinical faculty, and BSD research associates