The Situation:
I know that a LOT of students want to take 146/L during spring 2010. While I would love to have everyone who is interested be able to enroll in the class, that isn’t going to be possible.
Currently, enrollment is limited to 32 students. This is a direct result of the budget cuts that Berkeley has taken over the past year. The last time that I taught the course, I had 3 GSIs to help teach discussion and lab sections. This time, there will be only 1 GSI, which greatly limits that number of students that can take the class.
Criteria for enrollment:
The most objective criterion that can be applied to enrollment is whether a student has taken the pre-req (IB 144) for the course. Because Telebears does not screen for pre-reqs, IT IS VERY LIKELY THAT STUDENTS WHO SUCCESSFULLY REGISTER FOR 146 WILL BE DROPPED IN JANUARY if they have not taken 144. In the past, I was more flexible about the pre-req but, given the current class size constraint, it is now necessary to enforce this requirement.
For students who have taken IB 144, Telebears will give preference to seniors who will be graduating in the spring. I realize that because the course is not taught every year, neither juniors nor seniors will have another chance to take 146. I am trying to hold open a few seats for juniors that can be given away via a lottery in January, but I won’t know if this is possible until the start of the spring semester.
What you can do:
Try to enroll. If you cannot get into the class, try to get on the waitlist. Telebears records how many students try to enroll (even if they are not successful) and this is critical information that is needed to try to get more GSI support in future years.
If you can’t get on the waitlist (or even if you can), use the blog function on this site (i.e. leave a comment on this post and take the poll) to register your interest and your concerns about enrollment. Again, this is an important way for me to gather data regarding the actual level of interest out there, which is necessary to try to argue for more resources for the class.
What you can’t do:
Please don’t email me! I am just about to leave for an extended period of field research in South America. Email access from the field is minimal and I will not be able to respond to individual messages, particularly if my inbox is so full that messages start bouncing. I will be back in Berkeley just before the start of the spring semester and will deal with enrollment problems then.
IB146: Behavioral Ecology 