Has the University of Lethbridge lost its soul?
By Lethbridge Herald on September 6, 2024.
Dan O’Donnell
This is the first week of classes at the University of Lethbridge. It’s an exciting time. Old friends are catching up, and new students are finding their way around campus.
It’s also our “shopping period,” where students can attend different classes to see what else they might be interested in.
At the U of L, we used to take this very seriously. Maybe you’ve always been good at science, but want to try studying film. Maybe you’ve heard from a roommate about how cool it is in philosophy. Maybe you’re an English major who wonders if they could tackle computer science. Shopping period was when you tried out first-year courses in other disciplines.
In recent years, though, it seems we’ve decided this flexibility isn’t profitable. After severe government cutbacks—we’ve lost about 25 per cent of our funding over the last four years—those in charge of planning our classes have shifted priorities. Now, it’s more about making money than making education accessible.
This is about more than just balancing the budget. For years, we’ve had a rule that most junior-level classes couldn’t run unless they hit a minimum number of students.
But the new approach focuses purely on the “fill rate” — maximizing revenue by ensuring each class is as full as possible. If a class breaks even with 15 or 20 students, imagine how profitable it will be at 40 or 50?
By this measure, the department I chair, English, is doing very well. We used to fill about 75% of our first-year classes, which isn’t bad. But this past summer, we hit 100% by mid-June. Every seat filled, and more than two months before classes start.
How did we achieve this? Well, the planners cut our staff by one (we were already the second smallest English department in the country) and scheduled almost all our entry-level classes on Monday and Wednesday mornings.
Fewer staff means fewer courses, and by cramming them into two mornings, we avoid offering less full classes at more convenient times.
But is this a good look for a public university? English filled its classes long before the end of the registration period (which is still open, by the way). This means that the many students who typically register later in the summer won’t be able to take English this fall—a required course not only for English majors but also for many other programs, including Language Arts teachers. That’s about 15 per cent of all our students and about 30 per cent of Indigenous students.
These students aren’t lazy or disorganized. There are plenty of good reasons to enrol later — maybe you’re still arranging tuition, figuring out school for your kids, or waiting to see if your partner is being transferred.
There’s no shame — and there shouldn’t be a penalty — for signing up when the university says you should be able to. Even in July. Or August. Or the “shopping period.”
How do we fix this? In English, we’ve suggested restoring the position we lost or adjusting assignments to add more classes. But this might lower our fill rate, potentially leading to even fewer professors and classes next year.
But blocking students from taking the English courses they want—or need—is also a bad idea. A recent study showed that every credit hour at first year in English leads to two more in second, and that students drift away when we reduce course variety. The short-term profit we’re making by restricting access now will cost us in future sustainability.
The real solution is to remember why we exist as a university. Not long ago, our mission was to provide affordable, sustainable, and accessible education. We aimed to cover our costs, sure. But once that was done, we focussed on access, not profitability. This is why the citizens of Lethbridge wanted a university here in the first place.
The new approach might be better at pulling in the dough (a recent study suggested that the U of L is one of the most profitable public universities in the country). But we’re paying for it with our soul.
Dan O’Donnell is Professor of English Chair of Department at the University of Lethbridge. The opinions expressed are his own.
19-18
Agree!
i believe canadian universities in general have lost their soul. same can be said for our society. the common thread, and perhaps more than anything, is our buy in to the corporate, oligopolist ethos. universities are compromised by corporate money (hmm, just like our political parties), and we are well conditioned, by the marketing machine and our own egos, to over consume with regard to needs and wants. it all seems to boil down to why study things such as english and history – how will that make a person better in terms of money?
Is it true they actually earn a profit? I’m all for generating revenue but every dollar earned should be spent and reinvested on campus.
In terms of promoting/marketing, the Uni does an awful job compared to the College (aka Polytechnic).