Grady College enrollment gets trim in summer

By Jordan Stover

Academic departments at the University of Georgia have had to make an extra effort to fill their Maymester classes this year, and some have even had to cut classes altogether.

Low enrollment numbers in summer classes have been an issue for the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. In order to increase enrollment, the college allowed more students to take classes by waiving prerequisite and permission of the department, or “POD,” requirements.

According to Maria Cooper, a journalism advisor in Grady, the college has had no problem filling required “core” classes for their majors. However, electives, such as multimedia classes, have been harder to fill.

Cooper said that some classes filled up to begin with, but students turned down the class later in the semester after hearing back from internships and study abroad programs.

This was a problem for one UGA student in another college. Julie Yeomans, a senior in the Terry College of Business, had initially signed up for a Maymester class, but had to turn it down for an internship.

“It’s hard to make summer plans when companies don’t tell you about internships until late in the semester,” Yeomans said. “I would have loved to take a class to lighten my load for next year, but I couldn’t turn down a paid internship.”

According to Cooper, the sluggish economy has put a financial strain on the students and thus the college.

“It’s hard to fill summer classes late in the semester because students have a hard time deciding on short notice to live in Athens for the summer,” Cooper said. “Financially a lot of students can’t do it.”

She said that the dean of Grady wants to make sure every summer class that they are offering is full.

Cooper said that the telecommunications department in Grady had to cut a Maymester class this year because not enough students had enrolled in the course.

“It was a shame that we had to cut that class,” said Cooper. “One of the department’s best professors was scheduled to teach it, but we just didn’t have enough students enrolled to offer it.”

Grady was not the only college on UGA’s campus that had to cut summer classes this year. The Romance Language department cut classes in Italian and Portuguese for the summer semesters.

Despite the struggles that these departments have had filling their classes, UGA’s Associate Registrar Rodney Parks said that overall summer enrollment is not down significantly. Current Maymester enrollment is at 4,100 students, and according to Parks that number will fluctuate throughout the summer.

“Our summer enrollment tends to remain pretty stable,” Parks said. “I don’t have the total numbers for this summer yet, but I would think it would be about the same as last year.”

Edited by Leila Mattimore