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Arizona Daily Wildcat > News

The Mega Class

By Ben Feinberg

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Published: Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Updated: Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Centennial Hall

Mike Christy/ Arizona Daily Wildcat

Students in TRAD 104, "Human and Animal Interrelations from Domestication to Present", listen to Dr. Elaine Marchello lecture Monday morning in Centennial Hall. All of the 815 seats allotted for registration for the class in the performance hall have been filled.

In response to growing enrollment demands and the current budget crisis, university administrators made Centennial Hall a new venue for general education courses this semester. 

But how are students reacting to a classroom shared with almost 1,000 peers? 

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Comments

7 comments
Phillip
Sun Sep 6 2009 20:18
This is embarrassing. Here's a start, lets get rid of everyone who doesn't carrying a 3.0 GPA and start rejecting high school applications who aren't academically competitive.

Who should serious students suffer because of a few slackers?

UA Grad
Sat Sep 5 2009 22:28
This is the result of several factors, and is common at other large universities (e.g. Purdue).

With less money in the budget, there is less money for instructors so it is the next step to have fewer course offerings. With an increasing number of students divided by fewer courses, the only option is to have larger numbers in each class. This is higher education during a tough budget time.

Christine
Fri Sep 4 2009 19:14
To make Centennial Hall into a mega-lecture hall is a very horrible idea; it is the equivalent of converting a high-school gymnasium into a homeless shelter. Both serve the purpose of assisting people in need for a very brief time, but they hardly fulfill the functions intended by the original structures. Is there quality one-on-one time between the professor and 1100 people? I think not. Are there teaching assistants to help answer 1100 questions? I think not. Are there materials, supporting sessions, office hours, volunteers, grad students or additional instructors to supplement the subject being presented? Of course not. Perfect! Let's put 1100 people in a room, talk at them, and then expect that this kind of brilliant 'solution' is going to serve them in their future education, in their future careers, and in their future lives.
Supergrad
Tue Sep 1 2009 18:02
I had intro to philosophy in this building. Before it was renovated and nice seats installed I survived. You will too.
sucksville
Tue Sep 1 2009 17:42
Wow that really sucks, but I guess that's what you should expect when you go to a large University like UA. At least it's just general courses, but definitely still intimidating.
Blanca
Tue Sep 1 2009 12:53
My class of "Eroticism and Love of the Middle Ages" has about 1200 people. It is ridiculous!
Mary
Tue Sep 1 2009 12:27
When I was an undergraduate student here in the late 70s/early 80s we had large lectures like this. I had intro to psychology in Centennial Hall (called something else back then) that had about 800 students. I also had a very large lecture for a class called intro to western civilization (like a TRAD class). But for both of these courses we had a MW lecture and Friday discussion section taught by a T.A. so there was an opportunity to get answers to questions then. I'm not sure how a large lecture format will go without the friday discussion sections. It seems as if the students could get lost...

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