<p>I don’t actually think this decision should be up to the individual professor. The cap is the cap. It’s an administrative decision. The department chair should enforce the caps and add/assign sections if needed. The OP’s good nature is being exploited. OP, what would happen if you said no? Why is your chair not enforcing the caps?</p>
<p>I know people who deliberately choose to teach at unpopular times (8 a.m; Friday afternoons) as a way of managing student load. I’ve done this myself. Someone teaching two sections with 35 students gets paid the same as someone teaching 2 sections with 20 students.</p>
<p>Good point – it would normally be expected that departments have specific priorities for enrollment, and specific priorities as to who gets in off the wait list if a student drops the course. Sometimes, there are conditions like attendance taken up to the drop deadline, with automatic drop from the class (or wait list) for any missed attendance.</p>
<p>For an introductory physics course, lab space as well as instructor load is a limiting factor.</p>
<p>At many schools, there is a list of adjuncts dying to get a job. Asking for more money, accommodations is not a smart thing to do in such cases. The OP should get some idea as to what the policies are at that school and more importantly, the department and course taught, so that he is not breaking precedences which can cause problems for him. There are requests that are not wise to refuse despite an overload, and some that can be denied easily. If the dept chairman personally requests an override , for instance, one should let him/her know if the class is already overloaded but it would not be a good idea to shut that door if there is insistance even after that info is shared, for example.</p>
<p>I agree with you, cptofthehouse. From my experience over 25 years as an adjunct prof at a private university, even if there is a cap, there can be subtle pressure from administration to go above the cap. This may not be true for tenure track faculty, not sure about that. I agree that the adjunct has little bargaining power in most cases and it seems important to be viewed as flexible and a team player, as well as to get good teaching evaluations.</p>
<p>It seems that the OP is new there, so s/he needs to get a feel as to how this is done and tread lightly until then. That’s how it is with all jobs. If that course has traditionally ignored caps, and you shut it down as the new guy and cause problems, you are likely to be out on your duff once your contract is up for renewal. The departments and universities don’t want adjuncts around who can’t figure the way things work, in very short order. They are expendable. So you go by precedence and watch your step. If a senior ready to graduate needs just that course, it’s probably wise to let him in, but ask for verification of that fact so you aren’t being bamboozled. You don’t need a memo from the dean who gets an incensed call from a parent whose kid has to do summer school because some adjunct wouldn’t let him in the one course needed to graduate. Yes, you have to learn the politics and the dance steps of the position as one does anywhere.</p>
<p>Apparently, I have an utterly pathetic inability to say “no”. Another student appeared today - military, just stationed locally last week, already some medical training, wants to take courses catch-as-catch-can so he can go to med school eventually and become a military doctor. </p>
<p>
I don’t know how everyone’s requirements are laid out, but apparently there are a few who are required to have the class, but not as a pre-req to anything. Perhaps suffering from Physics-phobia they have left it till last.</p>
<p>cpt this is the first Spring session I’ve been there. Last fall there were 2 sections of the intro physics course and I only had a couple of requests to mine, which was easy enough. Right now, I’m just hoping a few students drop so we have a little more space in our classroom.</p>
<p>Just make your first test really hard. My kid’s intro math classes used to drop down to half after the first prelim. As they were graded on a curve, her A/A- average would drop down to B+/B after low performers dropped out.</p>
<p>Perhaps you can look up the degree plans for their majors in the college’s catalog to verify the claimed necessity of taking the course.</p>
<p>Do you have the option of keeping the students on a wait list (ordered based on the department’s stated priority, or yours if the department has none) and admitting students from the wait list to the course as others drop out before the drop deadline (perhaps hard assignments/tests and mandatory attendance can weed out the flakier students from both the course and the wait list?)?</p>
<p>^Fortunately, the window closes this Sunday, so after that they need a miracle. As for mandatory attendance, etc. I cannot personally drop anyone from the course myself. They have to drop out on their own. One of the override admits is currently in Ireland and hasn’t even been to class yet. I’ve had to work with her by email, but she was another “special case” to which one could hardly say no.</p>
<p>I am glad to see that most posters here are sympathetic to the fact that full is full, as I’m sure if your own child were one of the beggars at my door you would be hopeful I might relent and admit them ;).</p>
<p>My kid was one that was turned down at his school. Not a catastrophe, but a pain in the neck. The problem with being too generous with over rides is that if you are truly overpacked, and then you get a “must squeeze him in”, your previous admissions policies might get questioned. Letting everyone and his brother in until the fire code is in place and then when Dean’s son absolutely needs the course and you have to turn him down, it can get hairy.</p>
<p>At my university, the cap is the number of students they can fit in the room without violating fire safety rules. Well, I’m begin a bit sarcastic, but this is pretty much the case in practice. TAs and graders are allocated based on class size, so at least there is that. I have at times had to modify the kinds of assignments and the format of test questions to accomodate a larger class than I wanted.</p>
<p>If the course is chronically overloaded, then the department should really write some rules on wait lists, priorities on the wait list, automatic drops, etc… Otherwise, the process of getting into the course is likely to be seen as either too unpredictable or corrupt.</p>
<p>And if the department cannot offer enough course space for students who follow the degree plan for their majors to graduate in 8 semesters or 12 quarters of school, then the majors that require theoverloaded courses should use the admissions process to limit the number of students in the majors so that they can all graduate on time if they plan reasonably.</p>
<p>I teach at 2 institutions. The small private has made it clear that if we go over cap, the dean will look into raising it (plus, one class a week is in a computer lab, where a portion of computers are always out of commission, so raising the number could lead to trouble.) the other is a large public, and we have been given no procedure for cap override (though for the past week, I have observed that the second a student drops, someone else who’s been stalking the lists has added the class.)</p>
<p>Since these are incredibly labor intensive classes (freshmen comp–tons of drafts to comment on and grade), I know if I could and did raise caps, I’d suffer for it.</p>
<p>I feel your compassion, but be careful about taking onto yourself the responsibility of carrying the school’s commitment to its students.</p>
<p>No overrides. I only take them if I get a call from the department head specifically requesting that I do so, and this rarely happens. As many others have said here, more work deserves more pay, and in my case, more pay is out of the question. </p>
<p>So I smile sweetly and say, “I’m sorry, I don’t take overrides.” I think one of the important things to learn in college is to do things in a timely manner. (My own child has unfortunately not learned this.) Bearing the consequences of their actions should be on the students, not on you. You neither have to let them in nor feel guilty about it.</p>
<p>Momiinizer, you are free to do what your department head allows, but at least in my DDs school, students can get closed out if they try to register in the first 10 minutes. Hope my DD does not go to your school. Hope you are not at a public school, taxpayer supported. Maybe at your school close outs do not happen on the first morning of registration, but they do happen at many schools. I find your general rule of no overrides on the basis of this is the kids fault inappropriate, lacking in understanding, no matter how “sweet” you are. Its one thing to not do overrides because the capacity of labs, or ability to grade homework is at the limit. Its another to assume its entirely the students’ fault. Even if only in your posts, I think you should distinguish things that are really the students’ fault, and things that may be the school’s. Unless you do that, I suspect that students will try to game a system they regard as unfair.</p>
And a young African-American military medic, bouncing with enthusiasm to try to make it to med school and become a military doctor, WHO WAS JUST TOLD LAST WEEK that he would be stationed here - you would look him in the eye and sweetly tell him that you just don’t get paid enough to let him into your course, where you might have to spend an additional hour or two on his behalf with additional grading, etc.? </p>
<p>I guess I’m a sap, but there is no way I can turn that down. But then I teach for more than money, obviously, or I wouldn’t be an adjunct :).</p>
<p>Sylvan, thank you for your consideration on behalf of students like that. My daughter transferred to a school with extensive core requirements. The deans, department heads and professors (of all levels) treat each student as an individual, assess the situation, and do what makes sense.</p>
<p>I agree with mominizer. There is a reason for a cap. When you have too many students you are actually short changing those students. It is better to cap it than not able to pay enough attention to everyone. </p>
<p>No, you want everyone to tell you that you are a much better person because you take in all of those exceptions. But as a paying parent, I would be upset if the class was suppose to be for 20 students and you decided to take in 30+. There is something to be said for a small class and that’s what people are paying for. </p>
<p>The flip side is, after you did all of those good deeds in taking in those students with sob stories, you may find out that some of them lied to you in order to get in your class, or they don’t work as hard/not coming to class, then you will become resentful. </p>
<p>At work I have a lot of people (salespeople, managers) asking me to do them a favor, bend the rule a bit. I have found they often don’t end well. I learned that early on. I tell my younger staff to go by the rule and set the boundary, they would be better at their jobs.</p>
<p>If I was head of the department, I would be upset with OP for taking all of those extra students without prior approval. I would have told her that we set the cap for a reason. I would be monitoring her closely to make sure homework and tests are graded on time and she is able to meet all of her students during office hours.</p>
<p>Kayf, I must have sounded unreasonable! My courses don’t fill up in the first ten minutes–they usually take about two weeks to fill. Two weeks is enough time to get yourself registered, particularly if you know you need the course or the credits to graduate. If there really are extenuating circumstances, the student should take it up with the department rather than with the adjuncts. </p>
<p>If a course is popular and/or required to the extent that students who follow all the rules are shut out, it again should be the purview of the administration to remedy the situation. To place the burden of deciding whether to admit excluded students on the adjunct is unfair.</p>