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Thursday, March 28, 2024
NEWS  |  CAMPUS

UF business students ask for smaller classes

A student in UF’s Warrington College of Business is petitioning for smaller classes, citing packed lecture halls and limited space for in-person classes.

Alexander Orta, 20, started the petition Friday after speaking to about 80 of his peers who were disappointed with their classes’ structures, he said. The UF business management and economics junior said he’d like to see classes with 100 students at most and hands-on learning.

The online petition at Care2 Petitions has 14 signatures with a goal of 1,000, as of press time. Orta said he will start marketing it more after finals week. He said he wants to reach the signature amount by the start of Spring semester to bring to the college’s administration.

Orta said he has only had one business class that had fewer than 50 students.

“There’s dissatisfaction with the class structure at the university,” he said. “We’re not really getting quality time with our teachers.”

This semester, Orta’s three undergraduate business classes have about 350, 820 and 830 students. Though all are supposed to be taught on campus, he and his classmates are forced to watch online due to lack of seating, he said.

Many students can’t attend the in-person lectures because seating is limited in Heavener Hall, Orta said. The largest classroom in the building only holds 80 seats. In order to get a seat, Orta said he had to get to class 20 minutes early at the start of the semester.

Any later, he said, and he’d have to watch online.

“We have the same access to our teachers as an online student,” he said.

In addition to the petition, Orta created a Facebook group, WCBA Students United, where he plans to organize the college’s students and let others know of the petition.

John Kraft, the college’s dean, wrote in an email that the college offers class sizes based on demand by the students and faculty size. He declined to say what the student-faculty ratio is and whether the college had plans to reduce it.

“The faculty size is determined by the resources we receive from the university,” he said.

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Orta spoke to Kraft last Spring about the issue, but he said the dean didn’t seem sympathetic toward the potential petition at the time.

UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes wrote in an email that the university was not aware of the petition, but UF is currently trying to get legislative funding for the Spring to pay for 200 more faculty members across UF. This would reduce the faculty-to-student ratio from 21-to-1 to 19-to-1, she said.

“University of Florida is keenly focused on lowering the faculty-to-student ratio,” Sikes said.

Michael Shelton, a 21-year-old UF accounting senior, said the business students often pay for tutoring, because they don’t have time with professors.

Shelton said he understands the college may be strained for resources, but breakout sessions with less students should be offered for lecture classes. He said he thinks this could improve grades.

Shelton said he would sign Orta’s petition to see these changes.

“I think if they took these steps to make small groups they could be one the best if not the best business school in the country,” he said.

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