If Seton Hall wants to maintain its commitment to students of color, particularly African-Americans, it would do well to pay attention to research demonstrating that smaller classes are even more essential to their success than that of white students. Freshman English instructors are now able to interact with their students in ways that would be impossible with larger classes. For example, all instructors are currently required to have at least one conference with each student during the semester in College English I and two in Basic Skills. These conferences already add to regular office hours. Increasing class size for the entire freshman writing program would have to change our student-teacher ratio , which is already higher than many of the schools with whom we compete.
Large classes affect outcomes, as the studies mentioned above have demonstrated.
Students will use skills acquired in freshman writing classes for the rest of their time at the university, regardless of their discipline. We are training the writers of the future and preparing students to take their place within a community of writers.