Beginning next semester, all first-year seminars will be worth four credits.

The change, recommended by the Educational Plans and Policies Committee and accepted by the first-year seminar committee, was announced at a general faculty meeting onTuesday.
The change is intended to help first-years complete the recommended 14-credit course load. About 40 percent of first-years did not complete 14 hours their first semester, and about 30 percent hadn’t completed 28 by their second, according to EPPC chair and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Grover Zinn.

Zinn said the change from three to four hours would not increase the workload of first-year seminars, but would better recognize the existing load that students bear.
“A significant number of people are behind in their first semester after completing four hard courses,” Zinn said. “It’s a good first step in assigning equitable credits in course loads toward graduation.”

Some faculty present did not think the change adequately addressed the long-held debate over students’ course loads.

“This is a piecemeal change that doesn’t address the elephant in the room,” history professor Gary Kornblith said. “Almost any upper level course with intensive writing would warrant four credits. No one really knows what a credit represents.”

Kornblith is among faculty that has advocated a four-class course load, or an equivalent credit-
based system.