Photo Credits: Melena Weber Beginning in the 25-26 academic year, Concordia University Wisconsin administration changed the course enrollment policy which has impacted faculty and students in the School of Arts & Sciences.
According to Chief Academic Officer Dr. Leah Dvorak, for this year and going forward, classes must have a minimum of eight students enrolled to run the course, with some exceptions made.
“The financial goal is to ensure that the university does not spend more money to offer a class than what we gain in tuition,” Dr. Dvorak said.
According to Dr. Dvorak, with the new policy, CUW aligned with other private colleges in Wisconsin, as the common minimum enrollment number to be eight.
Before 2025, classes with four to seven students ran, but with a lower pay rate for the professor.
According to an Arts & Sciences Instructor, they agreed that there are too many classes with too few students, but unstable compensation strategies have been employed for faculty.
In addition to contractual full-time pay, additional pay for full-time and pay for part-time changed to $180 per credit (eight or sixteen weeks), $540 to teach a three-credit class.
The instructor said efficiency matters for sustainable financial numbers, but pointed out the gap of implementation for pressure is on faculty overload without being properly compensated.
According to the instructor, the faculty have minimal choice in when and what they teach. The departments now have tighter schedule choices and face late cancellation notices.
Senior Illustration and Philosophy student Mandy Davila has faced course cancellations that threaten her skills for her future career.
“I signed up for Concordia to have at least 4000 level drawing under my belt, but never got past a 3000 level. These are skills that are needed for my major and for what I want to do and why I came here…I don’t get them because of the low enrollment, which was rough,” Davila said.
According to Davila, her philosophy program was also almost cancelled from low enrollment, so there was a big push for any interest to keep the program and classes running.
“If it had been dropped, I wouldn’t have been able to complete either of my majors, or I would have had to jump through even more hoops,” she said.
According to Dr. Dvorak, there are no current plans to change this policy, but faculty have faced under compensation and students face cancellations of required curriculum to graduate.
— Melena Weber serves as Student Editor for The Beacon. She is a junior studying Mass Communications and Hospitality & Event Business. She is the Membership Coordinator for Campus Activities Board and the Student Engagement Intern for Concordia Crew.