• Fort Lewis College is now implementing their four-credit to three-credit change

• Student registration was postponed to accommodate for the new credit system.

• The new credit system may require students to take five classes a semester to graduate in four years.

• Despite faculty resistance to the credit change, it was implemented.

• FLC professors encourage students to speak with them for more information on how to handle the credit change.

 

April 4 marks the first day that students can register for classes next term. With the new credit change that is occurring, the registration had to be pushed back to allow the administration and departments to complete their transition plans.

 

New Changes

 

Under the new changes, the two-hour Tuesday and Thursday courses will now be 85 minutes, and the 70-minute Monday/Wednesday/Friday courses will be 55 minutes, Michael Martin, the history department chair, said. There will also be three-hour night classes that occur once a week that will be three credits as well.

 

Nearly every class will be three credits, meaning that to be on course for graduation in 4 years, students should take five classes a semester.

 

“It’s tougher on students because they have to take five classes instead of four,” Justin McBrayer, faculty representative to the Board of Trustees, said. “That’s one more thing to juggle.”

 

The added course does not just affect students, McBrayer said. The faculty must teach an extra course as well. Faculty members generally teach 12 credits a semester.

 

Under the old system, that would require three courses. Now it will require four.

 

Scholarships

 

Scholarship requirements are almost always tied to the number of credits a student takes, he said. This means that for a student to maintain a certain scholarship credit requirement, they will have to increase the amount of courses they take.

 

For example, previously if a scholarship requires a student to take 15 credits, the student could take four courses and meet the threshold.  Under the new format, students will be required to take five classes.

 

Task Force

 

There was a faculty task force that looked into the change from four to three credits and tried to evaluate the arguments for staying with the mixed model, and the arguments for going to a full three credit model, McBrayer said.

 

Dawn Mulhern, the chair and associate professor of the anthropology department served on that task force, which took place in the fall of 2013, and was led by Dr. Martin.

 

After assessing the faculty response to the proposed change to a full three credit system, the task force suggested that they stay in the mixed format, Mulhern said.

 

The change was made anyway, Mulhern said

 

“A good classroom is not about lecturing,” McBrayer said. “It’s about doing work together and solving puzzles and so-called active learning stuff. And having a four-credit class makes it a whole lot easier to implement active learning strategies in the classroom. You can do it on a three-credit model. It’s just harder. You have less time”

 

Martin encourages students to talk to the professors of the courses they are considering taking, so they can plan their time management for their semesters better.

“Come talk to us,” Martin said. “Let us help you.”