In the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the number of students in both the humanities and natural sciences has risen slightly in the past year while social and behavior sciences lag behind. This fall, there are 368 humanities majors, compared to 347 in 2005. In the natural sciences, the number has risen from 936 to 963. But for the social and behavioral sciences, enrollment has declined from 803 in 2005 to only 681 this year.
William Conley, dean of enrollment and academic services, claimed that the drop in social and behavioral science students is likely a fluke of the current sophomore class.
"In the sophomore class last year, we had 233 social and behavioral science majors, and this year's sophomore class has 125. The gap is probably because the number of undecided students in this year's sophomore class is more than double than last year.
"Students don't apply by major, [so] what they actually do ... can be very different from what they wrote on their applications. We are obviously trying to recruit, but they may drift," Conley said.
Conley explained that among several university initiatives to promote the social sciences, the improvement of Gilman has become is a top priority, for both physical and symbolic benefits.
"A more impressive building could be used to help recruit students, and provide better teaching environments. Prospective Krieger students are largely self-selective," he said.
Still, the administration is attempting to form a stable base for the Krieger School.
"In 2006, we had 28 percent of freshmen say they would be humanities majors -- exactly the same as last year," Conley said.
Nearly 24 percent of students saw themselves as future social science students, compared to 26 percent last fall.
According to Conley, the goal of recruiting for the social sciences has been to diversify students' social science interests, away from the perennially popular Political Science, for example, and toward the smaller departments.
The University is currently putting finishing touches on a new registration system, the Integrated Student Information System (ISIS), to help make the registration process easier and decrease class sizes.
According to Conley, "The most important innovation of ISIS is that the current web registration doesn't allow the student to search based on time and instructor name. Pragmatically, students must mold their schedule around their top priorities, the classes they must take to graduate. If they were able to search the school catalogue based on more administrative criteria, students might discover interesting classes in unexpected fields. Today, students are led by preconceptions when searching for classes,"
Administration claims that with ISIS, more students will be exposed to unexpected subjects. The student registration and records module is currently under development and is scheduled to go live in June 2007.
According to administration, enrollment in the Krieger School is currently "stable". However, for most departments, classes are relatively segregated by class. An increase or decrease in enrollment tends to only consistently affect the students in that class and department.
Still, this year's lack of behavioral and social science majors is not unnoticed by the Krieger School. Conley explained that in a school without a core curriculum and in which no Arts and Science student enters as a major, shifts in population can be sudden and unexpected.
"The new registration system, and a campus-centered recruitment and diversification effort can help to combat such surprises, but ultimately it is up to the students to join or dismiss a department. It is ultimately the student's right to determine what they study," he said.
