Overloaded science courses lack student-faculty interaction

By Chelsey Bayer     11/19/09 6:00pm

Rice touts itself as a high-caliber institution, complete with small, intimate classes and endless opportunities for undergraduate advancement. As I accepted Rice's offer of admission, Rice's five-to-one student-teacher ratio kept flashing through my mind. I wanted the chance to get to know all of my professors and avoid being a nameless sheep among hundreds of others. In addition to the small classes promised, Rice's proximity to the Texas Medical Center and its strong emphasis on scientific research made Rice a haven for pre-med students. I was sold on the university's pre-med-friendly image and the idea of personalized learning.

While I am incredibly proud to be an Owl - one graduating soon, with any luck - I admit that the "Rice" advertised and the "Rice" I received differed on several levels. I was surprised to find that none of the classes I could take to satisfy my pre-med requirements had fewer than 100 students - except for a few laboratory sections, which boasted about 50 students - and one early morning math class. I am aware that many of my fellow pre-med students will graduate from the university with the same experience.

I guess that leaves one question to ask: "So what?"

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A symptom of the overloaded pre-med classes is a surprising and disappointing trend in science professor recommendations, necessary for admittance into medical school. I understand that every student might not enjoy interacting with their professors; for some students, it is more of a chore than a treasured opportunity. But even if it is a chore, we know we need to get acquainted with at least a few of our science instructors before we send in our applications at the end of our junior year, in order to impress medical schools enough to gain admittance.

Many of us will never have more than a few seconds' conversation with our instructors in a large class. Even if we do catch our professors during their office hours for a conversation, it is challenging for an instructor to discern a student's learning style and potential from conversations and test scores alone. Almost no one likes to write recommendations, but a recommendation from a professor who knows a student well will help his or her career. I would argue, however, that a recommendation from a professor who has not had the chance to interact meaningfully with a student can only hurt both parties. In my opinion, Rice should be doing everything in its power to prevent this awkward situation.

After some investigating, I found that most Biochemistry and Cell Biology professors are bombarded by requests for recommendations from students they hardly know. Professor Alma Novotny, a BCB instructor, asked, "How do you field requests when you can barely recognize the student?" Her question echoes the sentiments of other BCB professors. Professor David Caprette, another member of the BCB department, claims he finds himself increasingly fed up with the number of nameless students asking him for letters. He has always "detest[ed] the process" of medical school admissions, but he is now considering "not writing any letters at all."

It is easy to understand why a professor like Caprette would opt out of the process entirely, because the necessary personal knowledge often goes unlearned.

Dana McDowelle, Associate Director of Academic Advising and Health Professions adviser, admits, "It is a challenge to get to know pre-meds [that] requires creative time-management." Yet she also insists, "The majority of letters are extremely personal." I can only conclude that BCB professors are making huge individual sacrifices to champion their students. Unfortunately, their efforts go almost entirely unrewarded.

The most striking side of the recommendation process is the lack of tangible benefits for professors, and the possibility of damage to their careers. When professors are vying for the security of a tenured position at Rice, their prowess as educators is hardly even taken into account - the success of the research they have performed will help them the most, according to a report from the Rice Committee on Teaching. If a professor spends time helping students at the expense of their research, they are dooming their chances of receiving tenure.

As such, some professors support separate research and teaching tracks for tenure, a system in place at other universities, in order to increase the quality of undergraduate instruction at Rice. McDowelle suggested that we should at least enact a system of "support for teachers who are very supportive of pre-meds." I would be very happy to see some of these changes effected.

It is apparent that some BCB professors are perhaps more frustrated than students with large class sizes. They are annoyed that students approach them for recommendations without having had any previous communication with them, that their classes are ballooning in size and that the problem is exacerbated by the loss of two professors, Mary Ellen Lane and Kevin MacKenzie, who had some of the closest contact with students. They wonder, along with the rest of us, what direction Rice is heading by escalating enrollment without increasing the number of professors. They have tried to create classes like BIOS 111: Fundamentals of Laboratory Work in the Biosciences, a seminar class that allows for interaction with Texas Medical Center researchers. However, all of the money for this type of program, according to Caprette, comes from the already strapped BCB budget and not from additional funding.

Many BCB professors I consulted with were timid about suggesting improvements to the system for fear of "rocking the boat" of the administration. I hope that a future brand of BCB professors and students will somehow discontinue this sad trend, gain the support of the administration and add more sections of major-required classes with drastically fewer students.

Chelsey Bayer is a Sid Richardson College senior.

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