Originally Posted by Kathy2

Don't worry members of the MSU will be present at any discussions to voice the opinion of students so something like this doesn't happen.

This may mean more weekend exams though

Yes, the money for the liberal arts building was specifically for it. According to the Silhouette, we're still short some money because the university wants to renovate the existing Arts Quad as well as start new construction. I wonder where they're going to fit it in. While I'm sure it will be worth it, especially since the Arts definitely deserve the long overdue recognition, altering your walking path really sucks when you have that all planned out to dash between far off classes.

Somebody mentioned an interesting point. Let's say 7500 students did apply, but first year classes are capped at 6000 with some extra 500 seats for upper years (these are just spitballing numbers). When this batch of first years graduate into courses/programs with alleged "capped capacities" what does that entail? Will the averages for 2nd year programs be higher to force people into more general programs? Additionally, how would that affect upper years who are banking on taking 2nd year courses that are capped, but need to for their degrees? Since a lot of upper year classes only have one core, especially 2nd year classes, what are they going to do when classes like Orgo 2OA3 is already overfilled in the fall ...in the biggest lecture hall on campus? And if we just create more cores, where are we going to put all these students? And exactly how packed will MDCL be?

Until this year's students graduate, I think the exceeded capacity will be quite problematic for the university, provided it does not happen again.

Good grief, this is a mess.

I hate when things like this happen but more student mean more money right? Where do they all use that money for? can't they use that money to help build more buildings and stuff along with funding we should try to get

Originally Posted by goodnews.inc

I wonder where they're going to fit it in.

I remember when the article first came out, I believe it was going to be instead of Wentworth House. I think that's just one of the proposed locations.

In terms of the new Liberal Arts building, it will indeed be on the Wentworth House location. This is, of course, pending the outcome of this October's provincial election which may see the province's commitment of funds cut or maintained depending on which party wins.

The MSU has taken a firm stand against certain proposals on how to accommodate the increased number of students, including options such as more Saturday classes, lectures being held off-site and half in-class, half online lectures.

We need to be more vocal on this issue, providing both the student viewpoint and possible solutions that work in our interests.

Simply increasing the number of students who are accepted without properly allocating funds so they're accommodated comfortably shows a lack of foresight on behalf of the university's administration. This trend of pushing as many students through our institution as possible decreases the quality of our education and increases the problems we all end up facing, such as a lack of space on campus, overcrowded classrooms and the never-ending battle we face with MUGSI and SOLAR every year.

Originally Posted by c.erl

... lectures being held off-site

This is such a ridiculous idea. Did Mac offer any suggestion to where those off site lectures would be held?

Originally Posted by Kathy2

This is such a ridiculous idea. Did Mac offer any suggestion to where those off site lectures would be held?

Floated ideas were the Westdale Theatre and, specifically for upper-year commerce programs, the new Ron Joyce Centre in Burlington. Though places like the Westdale Theatre might be kind of interesting in theory, the building isn't set up to be a lecture hall which would make note-taking difficult and transportation would have to be provided, which is extremely expensive.

Can they start classes earlier...at like 8AM, and have them on every hour (8-9, 9-10...)? Seeing as day classes end at 630pm, and night classes start at 7pm (I think?) they could make the last day class go from 6-7PM making one extra slot for classes. Could make a difference...maybe??

Originally Posted by goodnews.inc

... $300,000 from our pockets?

first off... i love you.

But when it comes to the 300,000$ mcmaster can use the excuse that that money is comming from the icrease in student enrolment, and that it wont effect mcmaster's services (money wise)

each student pays a flat rate for services from the athletic, to adminitstration fees. Since those arent changing in price, basicly now there is a greater fund comming from the extra students, but then evreything was bugeted for a smaller fund this year, and due to this unexpected outcome, they have money to spare.

But then my anger is with the fact that now all of mcmaster's services will be watered down!!!!!! ( but not the MSU's because we are flexable and fast... and now more students can uses 1280 ) but things like Student sucsess scenter, which has ALREADY recieved budget cuts, now instead of having to service 20000 students it must now do 21500 (roughly) but its not like they are going to hire another employee to do so! but its not just with McMaster student services.

Take Enginering Level 1 Acidemic advisor, Sally williams. She already has a packed full schedual and trying to meet with her either takes a 9 AM meeting, or wating in line for 3h and hoping you get to meet her, but now with an extra 300 first years enrolment ( i think rougly 300) how much harder do you think it will be to meet with her, instead of just 900 students, its 1200 for her (and she still knows half their names... o m g )

oh and i have beef with housing.. they broke past precedence with the IRC when it comes to hiring IRC reps, because they are having a crisis this year, they took away the designated IRC rooms. and were not allowed to hire externaly :( >.>

As someone helping to organize certain Welcome Week activities, I'm extremely interested to know how many people they are going to allow to have MacPasses then. A number has been thrown at me, supposedly from the SSC, that blows my mind. If 65% of this number is to be allowed to purchase MacPasses, they haven't warned any of the planning committees in time.

That's not to say any first year eng on year shouldn't get a MacPass... I encourage it. Get it quick, in case the SSC is smart about it for the first time and limits the number to something we're prepared for.

I was not even aware of the issue before the OP mentioned this offer and I have to agree that I am also disappointed with the uni. It shows some short shortsightedness on the planning department for admissions- they should have plans in place for extra acceptances- that could happen at any time. You are running a bit of a gambit b/c you can not know which of the 3 (or more) schools 1st years will choose after all. I suppose the issue may be that it is worse than usual this year?

I think that if a course is required for graduation an upper year will get preference. For a few reasons. 1. they are closer to graduation and thus frequently (as far as I know) in cases like this they will be chosen. 2. upper years get to pick courses first and therefore (if they are organized and know they need a course) they will grab it (and spaces within ones' area are often not as hard to grab slot wise). lastly upper years know the system better. they will know (hopefully) who to contact to get a seat and likely be less intimidated in doing so.

Over all this will be hardest on the first years I think. I expect specific program specialties will elevate their requirements as others mentioned. Also as mentioned, just b/c the numbers went up doesn't mean that the uni will hire more staff. So TAs dealing with first years (and the profs) are likely to be overworked as well- meaning less one on one and likely some students wont get the help they need and end up worse off.