A Minor Rant

Today I went to the photography class I have been looking forward too all summer.  I thought I registered for it last winter, but turns out I was mistaken.  I emailed the professor a few weeks ago but I never heard back.  So today I ditched the class I'm actually registered for and crashed this one, full of naive hope that I could add.  Sill, silly girl

You see, art classes are not for the general masses  Oh no!  They are exclusively reserved for Art People.  I was informed today by a man named Val that his first priority is his Visual Art students--they're the ones he's paid to teach--so they are his first priority for adding.

Now, don't mistake me.  I understand the need to restrict some classes and require pre-req's and so on.  But here are my two problems with Val's attitude.  First, he's only paid to teach VA students?  Excuse me?  So, if somehow he got a classroom full of Non-Art People they would expect him to teach for free?  Any Non-Art Person who sneaks in is just getting slip-shod volunteer time?  Hmmm...And second, if this is a VA majors only class then mark it as such.  But don't say it's an open enrollment class and then tell the commoners that they're only allowed if there's enough room.  No.  Open classes are first come first served., and if I care enought to get to class 20 minutes early just so I can add the class and your Art Person shows up 5 minutes late...or on Tuesday...well, who do you think is more interested in your class?

Which leads me to my last point.  As I say, I completely understand limiting your upper level classes to actual students in the major.  But introductory, 100 level classes exist specifically to introduce people to a discipline. The classes are already severely limited by size, why do you need to limit them further? Oh wait, it's only the art department that does that.  Unless you're in the program already there is simply no way you can take any kind of art class.

This policy is frustrating to me on so many levels.  Primarily, what if you simply don't know that you could or should major in art?  When your access to those classes is limited you aredenied the opportunity of making an informed decision.  But even more important, to me at least, are the people who know that they aren't going to be artists, but maybe want to develop a talent anyway.  Isn't that supposed to be something we'r encouraged to do?  So why is the Art Department so set on preventing it?

So how do we fix this problem?  First, and easiest, don't list your class as open enrollment if it really isn't.  "We let in non-majors if we need to fill desks" does not qualify as open enrollment.  Then, having created a closed enrollment class, make one that's legitimately open--even just a section of one.  Give Non-Art People a chance to be a little bit arty and see if maybe they're good at it.  It's only one section of one class after all...