Filling classes…

One of the things that I find most frustrating sometimes about Luther, is that our students have so little room in their schedule for elective courses. I’m teaching one of my favorite courses this spring term (proactive ministry in media cultures) — a class that explores what I think are some of the most pressing issues we face as pastoral leaders today — but at the moment, I don’t even have enough students registered in the class for it to "go." I suspect that will change by the time January rolls around (we only need 6 students to make it work), but what does it say about our place that I have to recruit hard just to find six students to take a class on media culture?

Part of what it says, is that students have very little room for electives. This class is a “pure” elective, which means that it doesn’t fulfill any specific requirement at all (other than credit requirements). Of course, students can choose to use it to fulfill education requirements, but they have to know that that’s possible (it’s not made very clear in our catalog). But I suspect another obstacle is simply that students believe they need to grab all of the theology and bible courses they can, while they’re here, and the more “practical” stuff they’ll learn out in the parish. Sigh. Oh well… I suppose if not enough students sign up, I’ll just have a more flexible term!