Dr. Randy Mills, associate vice chancellor of financial planning and budget said that WSSU was ranked the second worst overall out of the 16 colleges and universities in the UNC school system in the classroom utilization report.
The report measures how well the University is using its classroom space given the number of classrooms and the number of classes being taught.
Some students have been kicked out of courses to accommodate another student of higher classification. As Winston-Salem State’s enrollment has increased to more than 6,400 students, both students and teachers are finding it more difficult to teach and locate classroom space.
“I’ve been kicked out of two of my classes,” said Lakeshia Alston, a political science major from Durham.
“They said that I was just a sophomore and a senior needed the class to graduate.”
Some students said that they had never been kicked out of a class but because only one class was offered a semester, it would cause a schedule conflict and delay their graduation.
“In my major, the instructors have less time to teach upperclassmen and offer more sections due to the large influx of incoming freshmen and classroom availability,” said Monica Skipwith, a senior English major from Indianapolis.
This school year, the class of 2012 brought in almost 1,600 freshmen.
Mills explained that the old-fashioned process of having administrative schedulers from all departments turn in their desired courses and having central administration sort it all out was “completely ineffective.”
WSSU, along with other universities, is now using BANNER, an electronic information system used by teachers and students to register for classes and check financial aid.
In the new process, students register for classes through the online program.
In turn, instructors log on the same information system and choose a classroom space based on what he or she needs, such as computers for all students.
Dr. Mills said about 80 percent of all instructors get their first preference out of three choices.