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[resis]

Our department has very strong undergraduate enrollments, but after looking at data from the past 15 years, it appears we have moved from a period of persistent growth (first 12 years) to a period of stasis (last 3 years). Currently our undergraduate major is among the three biggest on campus.

I don't see any crisis looming, but for the sake of prevention, I'm curious, when external forces (like changing interests/values of students) start hurting your student-credit-hour production, what steps can/should a department take?

(As you might imagine, I'm asking because financial resources here are tied to SCH production.)

[much_metta]

Are you so sure it is external forces that have caused the plateau?  What about issues connected to campus enrollment, retention, progression, graduation, etc.?  What about physical space limitations?  Because you don't clarify if you are talking about absolute SCHs or % of all uni SCHs, the answers will greatly depend.

If your campus experienced a 12-year period of explosive growth that ended 3 years ago, there's your answer.  If you have "maxed out" your ability to teach more students (e.g., faculty can only teach 3 classes/semester and the largest lecture hall on campus seats 250, thus limiting each faculty member to a maximum of 750 students/semester), you have fewer options than if you haven't.  Are all your large classes taught in the largest rooms available and full to capacity every time?  Are you offering as many sections of them as you possibly can?  You say you're the 3rd largest major on campus--do you offer large service courses to the rest of the university?  Can you offer more or make them bigger?  Does that allow you to offer smaller courses for your majors?  Can those smaller courses get bigger?  Is a decline in the quality of the education the only consequence to raising course sizes, or are there other concerns (increases in disruptive behaviors, administrative or accrediting penalties for higher failure rates, etc.)? 

Answers to questions like these are essential to forecasting effective solutions.  However, no amount of forecasting can protect you from a shortsighted dean or other admin.  I've seen departments have their budgets slashed by such individuals because a department posted a 300 SCH drop from the prior semester, even though the prior semester was a 500 SCH increase from the semester before that.  That is, at the end of the period in question, net SCHs were UP 200, but all the admin saw was a 300 SCH drop.  If that's your environment, there's not much you can do.  Otherwise, answers to the questions above would give us a better understanding of your options.  If you've got lots of open seats in your classrooms, the strategies are different...

[csguy]

Probably wise to plan ahead. Speaking as a person in a program where enrollments have plummeted -- we've cut back as much as we can (possibly a bit more than we should have). We've lost lines, we've been threatened with elimination.

• Work with Admissions to recruit students
• Try to get more scholarship money for incoming continuing students
• Get courses in to the Gen Ed pork barrel

[anthroid]

Contributing to Gen Ed is the very best way to keep what you have.  If you can demonstrate that you are doing serious service to the University mission, you win.  Raise caps on those gen ed course when you can, cancel low enrollment advanced courses, and get the faculty to come up with a clearly articulated course schedule so students and advisors know when required major courses will be offered.  If you never offer a course with fewer than 12 students your dean will find you to be gold.

This of course depends on the size of your institution.

[resis]

Are you so sure it is external forces that have caused the plateau?  What about issues connected to campus enrollment, retention, progression, graduation, etc.?  What about physical space limitations? 

The plateau we're seeing is very likely caused by a plateau in university enrollment. And as long as new faculty lines aren't forthcoming, I'm content to see our SCH production stay flat.

The purpose of my original query was to help me plan for unfortunate external events in the future--e.g., if popular movies and TV shows suddenly start depicting practitioners of my discipline in a negative light or my discipline becomes the latest "major that gets you nowhere (or to an unsatisfying salary)" in popular thought.

I appreciate the suggestions made so far--especially the reminder about the value of getting courses into the gen ed curriculum. Any more suggestions?

[mtnlover]

We have added a few more sections of an on-line courses open to any major.  It has been well-developed and takes as little time to teach as any course in the dept.