By Samantha Melendez

Reporter

The recent influx of students at CSU Bakersfield has brought about change in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering department. CSUB faculty speak about some of the difficulties in course scheduling and provide advice for students in regards to their future classes.

Faculty in the NSME department are aware of how troubling scheduling is for students.

Todd McBride, interim associate dean, said the department chairmen meet once a semester, previously once every quarter, to discuss scheduling in their department.

This meeting is for the benefit of students. Chairmen work to create the best schedules and avoid their department courses conflicting with each other. But arranging complementing schedules is not easy.

“Scheduling presents a significant challenge in all departments,” said McBride.

McBride said the quarter to semester system has also made course scheduling more difficult, as many science classes have changed their requirements.

“There are going to be some glitches along the way.”

While the faculty works toward better course scheduling, others think the problem is larger than trying to make a schedule fit the student’s needs.

Jorge Talamantes, department chair of physics and engineering, said the problem is more complicated because of how fast CSUB is growing.

“When we were a small school we didn’t have this problem,” Talamantes said.

Talamantes added that there is a higher demand for courses and to take in all students, the university would need bigger classrooms. This is something students can see every day, as they walk to their classrooms, the halls are packed with students trying to get out or get into a classroom.

Even after assessing the problem, the faculty is not large enough to accommodate the recent influx of students at CSUB.

McBride said the science department has spoken about getting new faculty over the next few years. It is not certain whether this will happen.

It will take time for CSUB to accommodate students and offer them more sections in a course and perhaps even build more classrooms.

For now, faculty in the science department highly recommend for students to follow their academic plan, speak to their advisor and be flexible with their schedules.

The faculty has also suggested students take required classes in their early years of college to avoid a delay in their graduation date.