English 1 sections fill up quickly, delaying first-year writing requirement

Recognized by the faculty as the basis of a liberal arts education regardless of one’s major, two semesters of college writing holds its essential place as one of the three Foundation Requirements for College of Arts and Sciences students. Even though this requirement is generally completed in the first year, some first-year students experienced difficulties in registering for "English 1: Expository Writing" this semester, as the sections filled up before every first-year who wished to take it was able to do so.

According to Associate Professor of English and Director of First Year Writing Modhumita Roy, 558 first-year students enrolled in 44 sections of English 1 this semester, which is about 41 percent of the incoming class. Last year saw similar numbers, with 563 students registering for English 1. However, in the fall 2013 semester, 35 percent of the class of 2017 – only 457 students – enrolled in the course.

Professor of English and Interim Department Chair John Fyler discussed the causes of the increase in the number of students looking to take English 1. He said the large size of the previous two incoming classes is one factor. According to Tufts Now articles, there were 1352 students in the incoming Class of 2018 and 1318 in the Class of 2017. This year’s incoming class remains relatively consistent with last year's class size, with 1360 students in the Class of 2019.

The increase in the size of the incoming class two years ago was unexpected, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin told the Daily in an email.

“[E]ven with our increasing selectivity, we've had a historic yield on offers of admission for the last two years as well as lower than usual ‘summer melt,'" Coffin wrote. "Both are positive results but, when combined, it created a larger than anticipated class.”

While this jump was a surprise last year, the English department anticipated a similar trend this year and tried to prepare in advance, Roy explained.

“We are obviously trying to implement policies…to cope with [the increase in numbers] to make sure that people who need to take English 1 can take English 1,” she said.

Among these policies is a slightly increased class size for those sections taught by part-time faculty — up to 16 students from 14 students last year, according to Roy.

However, the English department is not likely to consider increasing class sizes beyond 16 students.

“These are writing intensive classes, the courses are about writing itself, so so much attention…goes into students’ writing, their thinking about writing, the process of writing, re-writing, drafting and so on, that we — I do and my colleagues — feel quite strongly that classes should not be enlarged,” Roy said.

Although three faculty members unexpectedly did not return to campus this fall — two retired and one may have gone to work elsewhere, according to Roy — that did not affect the English department’s plans, which had already started preparing for the incoming class.

“Over the course of the spring and into the summer, we had been planning ahead, trying to predict what the incoming class might look like and so on, and so we had added two new faculty [members] who are now teaching in the program and one advanced graduate student who’s teaching one section,” Roy said.

When asked to address a rumor that the shortage of sections offered was a result of part-time faculty union issues, Fyler explained that the problem of students getting closed out of English 1 classes is not a new one.

“I was head of [first-year] English 30-plus years ago, and I think this always happened, for one reason or another," Fyler said. "There are always a few students who can’t get into an English 1 section — either it’s at a time they can’t take, or we haven’t estimated it quite exactly … It has nothing to do with the union, it has nothing to do with the Dean not wanting to hire lecturers. We did our best to make sure that everybody was covered and came pretty close."

The First-Year Writing section of the English department’s website strongly recommends that students take their first-year writing courses before their sophomore year.

“Students should complete this requirement in their first year except under extraordinary circumstance,” the site says.

For the first-years who were closed out of English 1 this semester, however, this will not be possible unless they place out of English 2 by receiving a grade of an A or A- in English 1 next semester.

The English department estimates that between 13 and 20 students were unable to get into a section of English 1 this fall, according to Roy. This estimate comes from the number of students who enrolled in Section 99 -- the department’s extra English 1 section for students waiting for space to open up in another section -- at the beginning of the semester. Therefore, the estimate may not account for students who decided not to enroll in this extra section, Fyler said. In any case, students who were unable to register for English 1 this semester should be able to take the class in the spring, Roy said.

Still, Roy acknowledged that it is never desirable for students to be closed out of a class they want to take.

"It’s disappointment, it’s anxiety, and one can understand if this is your very first registration what that must feel like. So I’m very sympathetic to that … Even if it’s three students who got locked out and were unhappy, we pay attention to that."

First-year Rachael Meyer is one of those students. With a late registration time, all but two sections of English 1 were closed before she went to register, both of which closed before she could click “register,” she said.

Since her high school does not offer AP classes, Meyer’s high school English credits did not transfer to Tufts. Therefore, Meyer, who is considering an English major, was hoping to take English 1 this fall.

“I have to take English 1 and I was preferably going to do it this semester so I would…get a jumpstart and not already be behind compared to everyone else, who [aren’t]  even [considering being] English majors,” she said.

Fyler explained that recent policy changes within the English Department now allow students to take lower-level literature courses without having completed the First-Year Writing requirement. Aspiring English majors who are unable to take English 1 and 2 their first two semesters at Tufts, then, are not necessarily at a disadvantage.

“We did that in some ways to be consistent with what was happening across the university; in other words, if students can sign up for Russian Film at the same time they’re taking freshman English, we thought, “Why shouldn’t they be able to sign up for Shakespeare or whatever?” Fyler said. “English 1 and 2 are a foundation requirement; they’re not literature courses by design, they’re writing courses, so it makes sense to be able to take a literature course as well as [English 1 or 2].”

Nevertheless, the First-Year Writing requirement provides a basis for the kind of college writing that students will encounter in all their classes. For Meyer, this was a concern when considering which classes she should take this semester.

“I was…on the fence about taking [another] English class instead [of English 1]...[I] feel like for papers I have to write for this semester I’m gonna be behind, you know, like not know exactly what the professor wants me to write [without having taken English 1],” she said.

Roy emphasized the importance of the foundation requirement and the positive reception it has gotten from students. “We are quite proud to see that outgoing students routinely will say that even when they took English 1 reluctantly, they came out of it with a great appreciation for writing, and they report that their writing improved, so that’s great to know.”