Chico State University being wise to try market-based solution to classes

There are many regrettable aspects to the last-minute cancellation of several sections of foreign language and other humanities classes at Chico State University, which left both teachers and students scrambling.

But there’s also one promising development — the university is making a wise business decision. That certainly isn’t always the case in an environment where some people think an institution of higher learning should be run like a charity or nonprofit, giving students what administrators think they need rather than what the students want.

The university canceled 44 sections of courses about a week before the start of the semester and 68 in all in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. Many were foreign language courses, like German, French, Italian and Hebrew.

The university is still teaching those languages. It’s just that some sections were eliminated, giving students fewer options for specific classes.

The dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts said the university waited until the last minute to cut the classes in hopes that more students would enroll. When that didn’t happen, the university canceled the classes.

The people most upset about the late cancellations are the instructors. That’s understandable. Students are accustomed to seeing obstacles thrown their way. Instructors are not. Many of them are part-time lecturers. When a class is cut, so is their pay. Their livelihoods are affected and it was unwise of the university to let employees twist in the wind.

But some of the arguments we’ve heard after the late cancellations ignore the big picture.

One complaint is that the cancellations prove the university doesn’t value foreign language courses. No, it shows that the students don’t value the courses. Big difference.

Another complaint is that the classes were canceled because they were too expensive. Not true. They were canceled because there weren’t enough students. The university has limited resources and must use its funding wisely — to teach what students want to learn. There should be a constant reassessment of offerings.

New classes and new majors are being created all the time in response to that. It takes a nimble university to add majors in areas like computer game development and mechatronic engineering. But being nimble also means culling classes that aren’t as popular.

For example, many at universities bristle over the idea of getting rid of general education requirements, saying a well-rounded university experience requires students to take classes they might not like. There has to be a limit, however. Students are paying for this education. It can’t be force-fed to them. At some point, students make decisions with their enrollment choices and universities have to adjust or wither.

Robert Knight, the dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, regrets one thing about the decision. He said the cancellation of classes should have happened in May rather than August, so workers weren’t left hanging. We agree with that. But the university is absolutely correct in trying to ensure that all classes have an adequate number of students.

The classes are for the students, after all — not the lecturers.