By Jaeha Jang
The English department has nearly halved the number of sections of an introductory writing course, from 32 last fall to 17 this fall, as budget cuts constrain academic offerings at Yale.
In addition to that decrease in the fall sections of English 1014, “Writing Seminars,” the number for English 1020, “Reading and Writing the Modern Essay,” has dropped from 17 to 14.
The reductions are among the latest impacts on undergraduate academics of budget pressure in anticipation of an upcoming endowment tax hike. They come on top of decisions not to renew the contracts of several instructional faculty members, which the Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean described as being affected by budget “trade-offs.”
“These reductions were imposed upon us by the FAS Teaching Resource Advisory Committee, which has also imposed an increase in class size,” Feisal Mohamed, the English department’s director of undergraduate studies, wrote in an email to the News. “As a department, we are deeply concerned that the incoming class will not be able to find seats in introductory writing courses, and that those who do will receive less individualized attention.”
English 1014 and English 1020 are both listed on the English department’s website as introductory courses. Steven Wilkinson, the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, wrote in a Sunday email to the News that his office asked the English department to increase section enrollment for English 1014 and English 1015, “Literature Seminars,” from 14 to 15.