More than 900 students have signed a petition asking the college to rescind a policy that requires classes to have a minimum of 15 students enrolled or risk being canceled.
The petition, which education student Mary Ruesen circulated on Change.org and publicized by posting notices around campus, says the policy could limit the choice of classes and delay graduation for students, especially those with full-time jobs.
“I feel like changing the rule like this is something that is going to cause change throughout the whole college over a longer period of time,” fourth-year plant science student Alex Bradford said.
In the past, class minimums have been as low as five. About eight years ago, the college raised the minimum to eight, and then to 10 and then to 12. The 15-student minimum began this semester.
Some students said they fear the college will cancel specialty programs like creative writing, photography and plant sciences because they typically enroll fewer than 15 students per class section.
“So we’ll end up losing some of the parts of the college that are so important, like the strong community and the small programs that make it unique,” Bradford said.
Vice President for Student Learning Tanya Millner said the administration made the decision to increase the minimum class size to 15 after “a full academic year of data analysis and discussions that involved faculty and staff.”
She told Campus Current in May that “the target number has increased gradually and intentionally over time to better align with the enrollment trends and some budget realities.”
The college has reported that it canceled 9% of fall classes before this semester began, compared with 12.37% in fall 2024.
Bradford said she asked the Board of Trustees to let her speak for students at its September meeting, but was told the rules prohibit members of the public, including students, from speaking.
Student Government Association President Chris Chambers, who gives a report on behalf of students at every meeting of the trustees, asked them to “read some of the comments, what the students are saying, and take into consideration the impact that this new class minimum will have on students at AACC.”
Communications professor Zoë Farquhar said it could fall to faculty members to teach some of the canceled courses as independent study classes to a handful of students who need those credits to graduate.
“So it’s really falling to the faculty, out of the goodness of our hearts, to say we care about these students,” Farquhar said. “I would not be surprised if faculty members are asked to do this more and are forced to refuse, because it’s just not in our capacity to teach” more than the required five courses per semester.
Second-year education student Dax Geotia said the college’s motive for the new minimum could be financial.
“They don’t want to have to pay a teacher for a time slot that has less than 15 students, and that is frustrating,” Geotia said. “It says that they don’t value not only the student’s time, but also the teachers’.”
