At an art school, space is both a place to learn and a place to create. As student enrollment declines at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the institution is implementing stricter policies governing classroom use.
Outlined in a statement released on Sept. 23 by the SAIC chapter of the American Association of University Professors, and confirmed by Interim Dean of Faculty Dawn Gavin, the course cap for studio classes was raised from 15 to 16. Course caps are the total number of students allowed to enroll in a class.
Liberal arts classes have also increased their sizes, from a maximum of 22 students to 25. Art history classes, meanwhile, have dropped from a maximum size of 27 to 25 students.
“We felt it was kind of inherently unfair that liberal arts and art history were treated differently since the overall nature of instruction is very similar,” said Amelia Noël-Elkins, associate provost for academic planning and curricular analysis. In tandem with the change in the course cap, the minimum number of students needed for a studio or academic class to run has changed from nine to 10.
On the surface, these numbers are small. One more student can attend each studio class (with some exceptions). One more student is required for each class to exist. As Gavin put it, “It’s a difference of one.”
But to the faculty running these courses, a difference of one isn’t necessarily minuscule.
“The increased cap size of classes in the Film, Video, New Media, and Animation department worries me, because these time-based media art classes require a lot of time to give students proper individual feedback on their work,” said Adjunct Professor James Connolly.
Connolly said professors need individual time with students to develop personal projects and skills as an artist in the film industry. Adding additional students, even one additional student, will decrease the amount of time any one student can have with faculty.
These concerns are similar to the ones expressed by faculty when the length of studio classes was shortened by an hour as a result of the 2023 school-wide schedule change.
An AAUP officer spoke to F Newsmagazine on behalf of the SAIC chapter and asked not to be named, as they were speaking on behalf of the organization.
“Our primary concern is that increasing the sizes of classes will reduce the effectiveness of the teacher in the classroom,” the AAUP officer said. “The process by which decisions are being made are not fine-grained enough, they’re not responsive enough to individual conditions, there’s a one-size-fits-all approach that the school administration is currently applying, and that process is not involving faculty to the extent that it should.”
Gavin and Noël-Elkins stressed that the new course caps and minimums are not a one-size-fits-all. Gavin said that the administration works with Instructional Resources and Facilities Management each semester to assess how many students a classroom can accommodate. If a space can’t safely have 16 students in it, then the cap for a class in that room is lower.
Gavin added that the school has put money and time into preparing classrooms and facilities for accommodating larger classes.
In addition to the size of classes, the number of classes offered both this year and last has decreased. As SAIC continues to see a decline in the number of enrolled students, the number of classes will also continue to decline. The raise in the required number of students to run a course is a measure that can help determine which classes get canceled each semester.
“This is gonna be an absolute disaster if SAIC doesn’t increase the number of classes. Even with current sizes, I’ve been stuck on waitlists or been able to snatch the last spots available,” said Lauren Tsuchida (BFA 2027).
There are other factors at play. If a class is in an academic program with a licensure requirement and the course is required, “we’re going to have a different conversation about that class than we are about classes where there’s no kind of external requirement,” Noël-Elkins said.
In addition to licensure requirements, Noël-Elkins said that classes that are tied to specific pathways or professional development are also taken into consideration.
“We look at the roster of every single class we’re considering canceling. What’s the impact on the students? What might it mean to a student’s progression? Is it going to impact graduation?” Noël-Elkins said.
Some faculty said they’re concerned about lower-level classes being canceled. A faculty member in the FVNMA department, who requested anonymity out of concern for potential professional repercussions, spoke about teaching upper-level classes with prerequisite requirements. If lower-level prerequisite classes are canceled, it makes it much harder for students to be able to enroll in upper-level classes in the future.
“If that enrollment is down, then my other class enrollments will be down as a side effect or a consequence of that. It’s very short-sighted,” the faculty member said. He also spoke about how the new course requirements push teachers to both prioritize teaching less experimental classes and put them in the position of having to promote and advertise their classes.
With Spring enrollment around the corner, class schedules are on the minds of a lot of the SAIC community.
“My least favorite thing in the world is canceling a class late, close to the start of the term. It is horrible for the students. It is horrible for the faculty. If there is anything we can do to have as many students as possible register on time, that helps us immensely because if we have to make a decision [to cancel a class], we can make the decision earlier,” Noël-Elkins said. “Register early!”
