I didn’t know what to expect from pre-registration for spring 2021. The College is making plans to be in residence this spring while local COVID-19 cases are rising. But once again, our classes have mostly filled; our numbers look remarkably similar to those for last spring.

Enrollments for courses cross-listed in CS and Mathematics include students registered under both.

Commentary:

• CS 167 did not close, but enrollments remain strong. The total enrollment and gender ratio are very similar to last spring.
• Albert’s offering of ST: Data Analysis and Visualization is a hybrid course, with some seats reserved for first- and second-year students committed to living & learning communities, and others for online students. Confusion about the availability of the course may have cut into enrollments for this spring.
• As in the last year, CS 210 is only somewhat overenrolled. Cary decided to accommodate senior minors as well as prospective majors; the two students remaining on the waitlist are both junior minors.
• Enrollments in CS 270 are somewhat disappointing, as the course usually fills. But I’m not surprised. This was a rough semester for CS 167, with a new instructor and especially without access to our teaching lab. I wonder if we will see a dip in majors from the class of 2024, or if we mostly lost students who wanted to take just one or two CS courses.
• I worried that if we offered both Computer Graphics and Computer Networks at the 300-level in the same semester, they might undercut each others’ enrollments. But that didn’t happen: both classes filled.
• CS 327 filled with a small waitlist remaining, just like last spring. Perhaps we should raise the official cap to 24.
• Math/CS 350 has a remarkably even gender ratio for an upper level Math/CS class.
• We had significant melt in Capstone from pre-registration for this fall: from 26 students to just 19. This is largely accounted for by students taking leaves of absence from the College. Seniors’ reasons for taking leaves of absence have included physical and mental health, finances, and a preference for in-person classes.
• To accommodate fall leaves of absence, as well as juniors hoping to study abroad during their senior year, we decided to run an off-cycle capstone team. So far there is only one student enrolled, but we expect to enroll a couple more students returning from leaves of absence.
• The overall gender ratio in intermediate- and upper-level classes is around 1 woman for every 3 men: not quite as even as last spring, but more even than two years ago. I’m concerned that some of the ratios are as unequal as they are – especially in CS 210 and 270 – but I think there is a critical mass of women in every class.

It’s also time for a brief update on staffing. With continued strong enrollments, we proposed a visiting faculty position for 2021-2. Those contingent faculty proposals are still under consideration by the administration, but I have sketched a contingency plan in case the position is not approved. There was no solicitation for tenure-track position proposals this fall, but I’m cautiously optimistic we’ll have at least one new tenure-track position when hiring resumes.