Faculty Beat Laments “Dumpster Fire” Qual Fallout

By Yulin Meng

At this month’s faculty meeting, President Audrey Bilger shed light on applications for the incoming class of 2030. Academic programs, especially the position of visiting professors, will be impacted by budget cuts. The Schedule of Courses has been put behind login due to privacy concerns, and a big event to foster community belonging is on the horizon. The faculty code’s future looks brighter, as revisions to make the code actually legible are finally underway. Lastly, the efficacy of the junior qualifying exam comes into question as faculty members draw attention to the side effects of failing qual twice. 

International enrollment is turbulent, domestic on the rise

As per usual, the minutes for last month’s meeting were unanimously approved. President Bilger then began the meeting by thanking the faculty for their work in recruitment, retention, and especially persistence graduation, as persistence graduation rates are up by 3%. She continued to focus on enrollment for the rest of her report. For the incoming class of 2030, general early applications (EAs) are down by 8% following national trends, which is due entirely to a decrease in applications from India, China, and other East Asian countries. However, applications are up by 3% overall, and domestic EAs are up by 60%. Bilger noted that this year, Admission has started providing EA financial aid package reviews, allowing students to better understand their estimated financial aid package, and she suggested that this could be encouraging students to make quicker decisions. Students are also staying closer to home, as regions closer to Oregon are outperforming compared to last year. For the first time in five years, Reed is seeing a growth in Californian applicants.

Tightening budget impacts academic programs

Dean of the Faculty Kathy Oleson announced that a team of faculty and staff will be assembled to review the academic program and brainstorm ways to reduce costs in response to the college-wide budget reallocation. Teams across the college will come up with budget reductions in their respective areas, proposals for which will be reviewed by the centralized team in the spring, then sent to President Bilger. Oleson then thanked the accreditors that visited Reed from October 27 to 29. The outcomes look positive, as the accreditation institution accepted all corrections to minor errors of fact in their report.

Meanwhile, all members of the Reed Community have received a survey from SimpsonScarborough in their emails. Oleson explained that this survey is part of an ongoing effort from the Strategic Communication & Marketing department that aims to ensure communications are authentic and accurate. The survey is conducted through a third party and all results will be anonymized. 

Schedule of Classes now login only

Following concerns reported by several faculty members, Oleson announced that the Schedule of Courses will be placed behind Kerberos login. Since course details and room information are available on the schedule, Oleson explained that this change will help keep community information safer. The change went live on Thursday, November 13.

Jay Dickson, Professor of English and Humanities, announced on behalf of the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) Committee that the application deadline for submitting a new graduate course has been extended to December 1. Dickson encouraged all faculty members to consider applying as MALS courses can be a wonderful opportunity to expand upon undergraduate course subjects.

Open houses and community belonging

Kelly Chacón, Chemistry Professor and Chair of the Faculty Committee on Diversity, reported that the last faculty open house was a success at promoting dialogue between community members. For this reason, open houses will continue to be held, with future open houses planned for November 11 and December 4. The discussions held at these events will inform the guiding topics for the spring dinner dialogue with faculty. 

Noting that there haven’t been many events that aimed to include the entire Reed community, Chacón announced plans for an event titled Soup and Scribble with art stations and chili. One goal of this event is to counteract the harm that negative graffiti has done, Chacón explained. It is implied that the art made at this event can be plastered in an easily removable way in bathrooms to spread love and kindness. Chacón explained that other Endowed Chairs will be contacted to pitch in funding for this event. Chacón concluded by saying that they hope that Soup and Scribble will bring back “some sense of community and honor.”

Budget cuts threaten visiting professor positions

The Committee on Academic Policy and Planning (CAPP) updated the faculty floor on the revision of the visiting faculty process. Due to the extreme budget restrictions, it is likely that positions that would have been approved in the past may not be approved now. CAPP expressed that its members are trying their best to protect the integrity of Reed’s curricula and that they are open to faculty member feedback. 

Faculty governance documents are genuinely unreadable

Peter Ksander (Professor of Theatre), Nigel Nicholson (Professor of Greek, Latin, and Mediterranean Studies), and Michelle Wang (Professor of Art History and Humanities) of the Ad Hoc Committee on Governance Documents and Processes updated the faculty on the process of revising the Faculty Code. The Committee was formed in Fall 2024 to revise and streamline Reed’s governing documents.

Nicholson asked the faculty floor for a show of hands of all who have read the Faculty Code. Fewer than ten faculty members present raised their hands. Nicholson pointed out that the lack of faculty engagement with governance documents is due to how obtuse they are. The Committee finds that the Faculty Code spends too much time on minor processes and binds the hands of relevant committees in unimportant ways. They plan to rework the language of the code to be more accessible to faculty and delegate some sections to the faculty bylaws or course catalog.

In terms of a revision timeline, the Committee aims to have a full proposal ready by January 26, and plans to raise the proposal for discussion at the February 16 faculty meeting, with voting taking place on the March 9 meeting.

Tamara Metz, Professor of Political Science, expressed gratitude to the Committee for the effort of reworking the Faculty Code. Metz gestured to the curious position that the Faculty Handbook occupies and asked for clarification on the handbook’s future. The Committee responded by underlining that the handbook is subordinate to the code and indicating that the revised Faculty Code should be accessible enough that it would not need a separate handbook to be interpreted. 

Nicole James, Professor of Chemistry, expressed concern over the Committee’s decision to wholly delegate portions of the current code to subcommittees and wondered if faculty would have the right to “un-delegate” business in the future. The Committee assured her that faculty will always have the right to un-delegate business, and that this change is being done to ensure that decisions will be made at the most appropriate and efficient level, as the current faculty size does not fit the code’s system of operation. 

Junior qual could cease to exist

Kyle Ormsby, Professor of Mathematics, reported on behalf of the Academic Success Committee (ASC) about its investigation into the junior qualifying examination. Though the purported goal of the qual—assessing student preparation for thesis—has never changed, departments and programs have diverse qual practices, ranging from take-home written essays to timed in-person exams, seminars, and oral exams. The Committee encouraged the CAPP and general faculty to reflect on the qual and its function. Basic questions such as the pass, conditional pass, and fail rates on first and second qual attempts are difficult to answer because the qual is managed by faculty administration coordinators and not as an IRIS course. Currently, the Office of the Registrar is developing qual result tracking systems, though these efforts are in dubious standing as qual practices might change in the near future, as Ormsby observed.

Ormsby continued by noting the challenges that the qual poses to both students and faculty. Some students report viewing the qual as a source of stress and an obstacle to graduation, while faculty face difficulties helping students who need to change majors due to failing their qual twice. Outside of Reed, qual practices are shifting, as many (but not all) PhD programs across the nation are eliminating the qualifying exam from their programs. These signs point to a need to reassess Reed’s current qual practices. 

Kristin Scheible, Professor of Religion, expressed a disinterest in quals at other institutions and suggested that the qual is a constituent part of Reed. She also wondered if this investigation into the qual has anything to do with conversations at last spring’s faculty retreat. Ormsby responded that the Committee has not considered the qual through this lens, though it does consider the thesis to be a core Reed experience. President Bilger chimed in, ensuring everyone that student perspectives will be considered in the qual investigation.

Erin Hunt, Professor of Economics, articulated strong feelings about the qual. The economics department is on the receiving end of the impact of the qual as it sees a non-trivial amount of students migrate to economics after failing the qual twice in their original department, she remarked, calling the situation a “dumpster fire.” Hunt explained that graduate economics programs see students take the qualifying exam in their first year, suggesting that Reed should administer the qual earlier in a student’s college career. Hunt strongly emphasized the duty that the college has to graduate the students it admits—Reed has standards, and it should help students meet those standards. With this, she concluded that the current system can be dramatically improved. 

After the meeting, the Quest reached out to Hunt for further comment through email. Hunt explained that, though the qual problem does not affect the student body at large, she knows that a “low single-digit” number of students switch to economics late every year, and she is not aware if other departments regularly receive such students. Hunt expressed a reluctance to speculate on the reasons why economics seems to be the destination of these students. Hunt declined to comment on the departments that students fail out of, underlining that “call[ing] out single departments…would not help [her]…successfully advocate for the changes [she] would like to see.”

Following Hunt’s comments, Bobby O’Brien, Professor of Chemistry, remarked that eliminating qual would merely transfer the “dumpster fire” to thesis. Failing the chemistry qual shows an extreme level of unpreparedness, O’Brien explained. The chemistry department issues lots of conditional passes, so failing shows that a student is not sufficiently committed to chemistry as a major. In response, Ormsby remarked that implementing measures such as D grades not counting towards prerequisites and major-specific GPA requirements might help alleviate the qual situation indirectly.

Luda Korobenko, Professor of Mathematics, asked if and how the qual reform will happen—and if cancelling qual is on the table. Ormsby acknowledged the difficulty in reforming qual, especially considering that each major takes a different approach.

Nicole James, Professor of Chemistry, expressed that she shared her position with Hunt and O’Brien. Chemistry has a qual with a focus that is very different from other majors and does not experience double qual failures, she explained. The chemistry department does not want to change its qual.

Another professor argued that students who pass with a B- on their qual can still “crash and burn” during their thesis. This professor viewed qual as having a “lock-in” effect for major and expressed that, for them personally, qual is “a pain in the butt” that is not effective at achieving its goals, and they would like to see it gone. This professor proposed that the goals of qual be achieved instead through courses and faculty observations. 

Kris Anderson, Professor of Psychology, announced that the psychology department had just concluded an extensive qual revision process. The current psychology qual is an assessment that tests for specific skills, Anderson explained. Embedded within the psychology qual process is skill tutoring. A second assessment for skill mastery is administered if the student did not meet expectations in their first assessment, and the student only fails the qual if they fail this second assessment. Anderson argued that faculty have a responsibility to assess students in a way that allows for the remediation of skills. She concluded that the qual should be maintained but it should be administered in sophomore year to allow students more opportunity to make up for skill deficits. The qual allows psychology faculty to see when they have failed as instructors, she explained. 

Adam Groce, Professor of Computer Science and member of the ASC, noted various difficulties in reevaluating the qual. Faculty have divided opinions on the effectiveness of qual, and even those who are in favor of it have varied goals when administering quals. This makes any overarching qual revisions difficult, he argued. The ASC is considering ways to compensate for qual effectiveness through supplementary means. The key question for Groce is: how do we achieve current qual revision goals through other means?

Chris Koski, Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies, suggested that the qual as we imagine it might not exist. For some programs, it takes the form of a gatekeeping exam, for others it is the junior seminar. It is unclear if there is an actual solid policy prescribing the qual, yet it is integral to the institution. Is Reed going to mandate quals for departments going forward? Will Reed allow departments to have a qual?

Kjersten Whittington, Professor of Sociology, presented an alternative perspective on the qual. For sociology, she explained, the qual is a way for faculty to gain an understanding of where a student is at, which advisors to assign to a student, and what thesis research is feasible for them. Whittington would like to retain this utility of the qual. 

Greg Jenson, Professor of Psychology, reported that in his own academic advising experience, students are much more receptive to skill acquisition in preparation for the qual than for thesis. Sophomores whom he advises are never worried about thesis but they are routinely worried about the qual. The psychology department engineered its qual to give information about skills for thesis, for how well students might do in thesis, he explained. As Jenson puts it, if quals are coming to students as a surprise, then departments might not have sufficiently integrated the qual into their curriculum. 

Following this extended qual discussion, faculty raised no new business, and the meeting was adjourned. The next faculty meeting will be held on December 1 from 4:10 to 5:30pm in Vollum Lounge. Students interested in attending should contact presidentsoffice@reed.edu.