A total of 72 courses slated for Fall 2006 were cancelled, accounting for 7.2 percent of those originally listed, according to University Registrar Michael Pesta. This number represented a slight drop from Fall 2005, when 78 - or 8.2 percent - of listed courses were cancelled.
Over the past six years, the highest number of cancelled fall courses came in 2001, when 85 courses - or 9.3 percent - were cancelled.
According to Pesta, the term "cancelled course" refers specifically to "one that the departments indicate they will teach when we ask them for the Course Announcement materials in January-February for the next school year and which then has to be canceled for one reason or another."
In general, the number of courses cancelled in the fall semester varies only slightly from year to year. A variety of factors lead to these cancellations.
"As with many other aspects of an organization as large and complex as Brown, there is seldom a simple explanation to explain a pattern of occurrences," Pesta wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
Pesta described several scenarios that can lead to a cancellation, including cases where professors leave the University, become ill or take on "administrative duties that require them to curtail their teaching load."
Students currently trying to pre-register for the upcoming spring semester may have to alter their plans when they discover that certain offerings will not be available.
One of the courses that was originally supposed to be offered but will not be available next semester is IT 11: "Intensive Elementary Italian." This particular cancellation has forced Nanaho Kamei '10 to reconsider her plans as she prepares to potentially study abroad.
"I was hoping to take IT 11 this semester and then (IT 30: "Intermediate Italian I" and IT 40: "Intermediate Italian II") sophomore year so that by junior year I would be competent to study abroad in Italy," Kamei said.
Pesta said the registrar's office does not yet have information regarding the total number of courses originally scheduled for the upcoming spring semester that have been cancelled.
Nina Arjarasumpun '10 said she believes course cancellations can limit students' options and potentially make it difficult to take advantage of Brown's curricular offerings.
Arjarasumpun said courses she was considering taking "were the classes I wanted to take that weren't part of my concentration requirements. Now that they're canceled, I feel like I'm taking classes that are mostly required, and I know that that's not what Brown's all about."
Pesta stressed the need for students to be flexible when planning their schedules, as some changes in course offerings are unpredictable.
"It must also be kept in mind that the departments are often dealing with circumstances that are beyond their control," he wrote.
