Hamel says Chem 10--which has had a decline in enrollment from 353 in 1992 to this year's 205--nearly deterred him from concentrating in chemistry. "Chem 20 really got me into doing chemistry," he says. "I definitely had second thoughts coming from Chem 10."
"I personally enjoyed the class," says Zalatan. "I like the way it was taught. There were some problems at the beginning and some with the labs, but on the whole it was a good course.
On the Horizon
While reform would come too late for this year's crop of disgruntled Math 22 and Chem 10 students, both the math and chemistry departments say they are committed to improving their intro-level course offerings.
Much of the impetus for change has come from student input within the departments. Students say course heads for Chem 10 reduced the class workload following predominantly negative mid-year evaluations, and Chem 5 and 7 offer tri-weekly "help rooms" to work through difficult concepts and problem set questions.
In the math department, the student-run Math Club, which holds a seat on the curriculum committee, has emerged as a voice for reform.
"Right now I've just been annoying the professors to change what we want," Dasgupta says. "We have an official position on the curriculum committee of the math department, but it hasn't met yet this [academic] year."
Dasgupta claims the department has been unresponsive to student complaints in the past.
"It seems to me that year after year there are complaints [the curriculums] should be changed, but the math department doesn't seem to have the people to do it," he says.
As a result, members of the Math Club have take Officials in the math department promise Math22 reform is forthcoming. Senior Lecturer onMathematics Daniel L. Goroff '78 promises a morefocused, math-based curriculum next year. To replace the much-maligned current textbook,the department recently selected a new textbookthat Goroff calls "unusually computer savvy,coherent and precise." Goroff also points to recent innovations inother courses as departmental successes, includingnew textbooks curriculum reforms in Math 1 and 21and the use of what he calls "flavored sections"in Math 21. "Depending on demand, these include ones thatemphasize applications to biochemistry, the socialsciences or physics, as well as others thatemphasize proofs or the use of computing,"Goroff says. "Student ratings of these specialsections have generally been quite high." Meanwhile, top administrators say they are notworried by the enrollment drop-off in math andchemistry entry-level classes. "There is in every college in the country, amigration out of the sciences into the socialsciences and out of the social sciences into thehumanities after arrival," says Dean of theFaculty Jeremy R. Knowles, also Amory Houghtonprofessor of chemistry. "I am never going to be unhappy if studentsfind some other part of the landscape appealing,"he says