Overcrowding

In the first week of the University team, three Stage I units appeared to be seriously over crowded.

During lectures in Sociology I,. Administration I, and Quantitative Analysis, students were forced to sit in the aisles. This situation existed despite the fact that the lectures for these units were held in LB1 or E006 which are the biggest lecture halls in the University.

In Quantitative Analysis, this situation arose because only about 30 of the 422 students who are enrolled for the unit were willing to attend the second stream of lectures—this, despite the fact that exactly the same lecture is delivered in the second stream as in the first. The lecturer. Miss P, Hyman, has asked that more students attend the lecture at the later time. Few have responded. However, some have changed to Pure Mathematics I.

Miss Hyman asserts that no one will be forced to leave the Quantitative Analysis lectures and that tutorials are not overcrowd. She said that if students want the comfort of a seat they can come to the later stream of lectures. She continued that the situation will probably resolve itself anyway due to the high failure rate in this unit.

There are also two streams in the Administration I course and an early overcrowding problem has been largely overcome by the Department of Commerce and Administration suggesting that some students attend the 1B course. The Head of the Department, Professor Fogelberg, considers the Dpartment can cope with the 100 extra students. He, did think, however, that more tutorials would be required.

By far the most serious overcrowding has occurred in Sociology 1. In these classes. LB1 with a seating capacity for 320 has had to accomodate up 370 students. Professor Robb, the Head of the Sociology Department, made an appeal to those taking the unit as a fill in to leave. Although he said that those who did leave would be assured of entrance to the unit in 1971 were it to be restricted (which he thought was likely), few responded to his appeal.

The Sociology Department has four unfilled vacancies and it seems unlikely that numbers in tutorials will be able to be kept down to a satisfactory level. The problem is aggravated by a shortage of a set text book. Professor Robb says that the Administration has been informed of the overcrowding and in the meantime the Departmentt will "struggle on".