Chancellor Todd Shields and Provost Calvin White spoke to faculty and staff of Arkansas State University about scheduling, graduation rates and recruitment strategies. 

The chancellor and provost said they want more classes scheduled for Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 

White said he took his college math classes on a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule to learn better. 

“I was there Monday, Wednesday and Friday and they made me come to class. I only had Saturday and Sunday to goof off until I was right back in class. The touch points were there. That’s what we’re asking you to do,” the provost said. 

Jessica Gregory, lead operations manager for the Office of Admissions, said she takes classes at A-State. 

“I’ve noticed for several years, we don’t have a very good relationship with our non-traditional students. So, we don’t have a lot of classes that are after (5 p.m.), which would be beneficial for them and me,” Gregory said. 

Gregory asked the chancellor and provost if they planned to address this issue. 

White said he wants 80% of classes to be taught from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Then, he wants 10% of classes to be taught from 7:30-10 a.m. and the other 10% of classes to be taught from 4-7 p.m. 

“When I say that there’s a certain percentage of classes that should be between the hours of four and seven, it’s for the non-traditional students who come on our campus,” White said. 

The provost said this scheduling change would also help student-athletes with rigid practice schedules or students who have to work. 

In addition, the chancellor said the campus will be changing the minimum number of students who can take a class. He said this would even out workloads among faculty. 

“Even in primetime, we’re offering courses that really will have three, maybe four students in it,” Shields said. “When you have financial issues that we’re starting to struggle with, that’s really difficult. It’s also really unfair because a lot of times the junior faculty will be the ones that take on those additional responsibilities.”

He said changing the minimum class size may help with funding and the faculty-to-student ratio. 

“It’s not something that I really want to champion because we have quite a few faculty per student,” Shields said. 

He said when legislators see the current ratio, they think the campus has too many employees and does not want to give the university additional funding. 

Shields said A-State has a higher-than-normal rate of juniors and seniors who drop out. He said this can be a result of mental health problems. 

“The incoming class has more mental obstacles facing them than any other generation,” Shields said. 

He said he wants professors and advisers to be proactive and reach out to students who seem to be struggling. 

“Every study says that if (students) don’t feel like they belong, they’re not going to stay, they’re going to go someplace else,” Shields said. 

The provost said some departments have been scheduling important classes in the summer, which can deter students from finishing their degrees on time. 

“We have some people who are scheduling graduation requirements in the academic program in the summer. That’s called building in your salary in the summer,” White said. 

In addition, he said the new class size minimum could help alleviate this problem since many of these courses have very few students. 

The chancellor spoke about increases in enrollment numbers resulting from new recruitment strategies. 

“We’re doing a lot of marketing and we’re marketing things to parents very differently than marketing things to kids. We’re doing a lot of things on social media because that’s where they live,” Shields said. 

He said the university is doing more to recruit students from Arkansas. 

“We’re trying to do everything we can to say this is the best place for you, right here, right now,” the chancellor said. 

The provost and chancellor concluded the conversation by speaking about the positive aspects of A-State. 

“I want you to be proud of the fact that we are the only university in the state that has a med school, the only public university to have a vet school too, the largest graduate programs and the Arkansas Biosciences Institute and their massive amounts of research,” Shields said. 

Categories: News