The opinions expressed in The Lawrentian are those of the students, faculty and community members who wrote them. The Lawrentian does not endorse any opinions piece except for the staff editorial, which represents a majority of the editorial board. The Lawrentian welcomes everyone to submit their own opinions. For the full editorial policy and parameters for submitting articles, please refer to the About section.
I remember my first week of Winter Term my sophomore year: Intro to 2D Art, Symbolic Logic and Research Methods in Psychology. While I enjoyed the courses very much, each required more dedicated time and energy than many of my other courses in prior terms. At the time, Research Methods in Psychology followed a typical Lawrence class schedule of Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Tuesday and Thursday on top of a four-hour long lab, which for me, was 8:00 a.m. until noon every Friday. Combining the seven-and-a-half hours of instruction per week of Research Methods with the two three-hour long art classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. and the three and a half hours of logic problems on Tuesday and Thursday from 12:40 p.m. – 2:25 p.m., my total time spent in class was 17 hours a week, none of which included the time I spent on homework, projects and studying for exams.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Daryian, you signed up for the courses willingly. You should’ve known that is a hard schedule,” and you’d be right; I did sign up for the courses of my own volition knowing it would not be an easy schedule. Quite frankly, as a student, I like to challenge myself, as that is the kind of environment I need to grow. However, my point in telling you about my busy schedule is not to get your sympathy, or to complain about the hours I spent studying logic problems or trait Machiavellianism; rather, I am making the case that if you are required to spend more time in class than a typical Lawrence course, you should earn more credits.
What exactly does this mean? A typical Lawrence course is about three and a half hours of instruction every week — an hour and ten minutes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday or an hour and forty-five minutes on Tuesday and Thursday for 10 weeks a term excluding the two days for each term’s reading period and holidays. There are a few courses in the college that are an exception to this, such as some art courses, which typically are two three-hour chunks a week, for a total of six hours, and lab courses, many of which are formatted to add an additional three-hour chunk to your three-and-a-half hours a week — or in the case of the old Research Methods in Psychology, four hours. Taking this into consideration, one lab course is almost twice the amount of instruction time as a typical Lawrence course, so why are they still worth the same number of units? According to the Lawrence Registrar, in a credit hour sense, they aren’t: “A standard course (reported as either 6 units or 1 term course credit) is the equivalent of 3.333 semester hours or 5 quarter hours” . . . Laboratory courses in the sciences are equivalent to courses at other colleges valued at 5 semester or 8 quarter hours.” While it is nice to know that the time and energy we put into our lab course will net us a few extra semester hours compared to other Lawrence courses, useful for those looking to transfer or going to grad schools that require a certain amount of credit hours in one area, why is this not being reflected on our own Lawrence transcript?
It would only make sense that a course worth more credit hours would also be worth more Lawrence units, yet that is not the case. You may be wondering, “why should I care? I am going to graduate in four or five years regardless, so who cares about a few extra units?” To that I will answer: you should care, because a few extra units would allow for you to have options in your course load in terms that you have lab courses. Imagine if each lab course was worth nine units instead of six units. It would allow you to take two courses — the lab course and a typical six-unit course — for a total of 15 units, in which you would retain full-time student status while being able to take on a more manageable course load for the term. You could also take a three-unit course to remain on track with the “standard units per term”. However, assuming you do not mind taking three courses at once, one being a lab course, it would still allow for you to do so, at 21 units — without overloading — yet still recognizing the extra hours you are putting in towards the lab time.
Overall, if you are spending more time in a class, and doing more work for a class, you should get recognized for your efforts. In this case, the units should add up to the additional credit hours you would earn at another college. I have also shown how creating a nine-unit lab course would not diminish students’ opportunities to still take three courses without overloading; rather, it would allow for students who want a more manageable term to still be recognized as full-time students and for all students who are taking lab courses to be given the credit they deserve.