More seats had to be added to the two sections of ENG 1000, Fundamental Writing, this fall, and another section had to be added for next spring to accommodate the increase in students who need the course.

ENG 1000 is required for students who have ACT scores in English of 14 or below, or have no test scores on file with the university. These students must pass ENG 1000 before they can enroll in ENG 1001G.

For Fall 2008, 71 incoming students had ACT English scores of 14 and below, and 16 did not submit scores, according to Planning and Institutional Studies.

For Fall 2007, 56 incoming students had ACT English scores of 14 and below, and 19 did not submit scores.

In Fall 2006, 57 incoming students with English ACT scores of 14 or below, and 44 did not submit scores.

Director of Admissions Brenda Major said part of that larger number needing ENG 1000 could be attributed to the university accommodating more students in the Gateway admissions program.

“That alternative admission program allows us to admit and provide a great deal of assistance to students who are either first generation of their families who are attending college, students who are from a low socio-economic household or of an under-represented minority population at Eastern,” Major said.

She said the number of students who have ACT English scores lower than 14 or have not submitted scores include incoming transfer students, non-traditional students and veterans, which could be why some students don’t submit a score or have a lower score.

“It’s certainly a small number considering the 1,800 new freshmen we admit,” she said. “But that is likely where you’ll see students who don’t quite meet the regular requirements and who may need some remedial help in English.”

To be admitted into Gateway, an incoming student must have a minimum ACT composite score of 14 and a 2.0 GPA.

An ACT sub score of 14 in English would be the lowest score considered, Major said.

Major said the Gateway program will admit between 200 and 250 students into the program every year because they know they are not all going to come.

“Our typical yield rate or show rate for that program is about 50 to 60 percent. This year the yield rate was higher,” she said.

She said they did close the program early in March. Regular admissions continue to admit students throughout the summer.

“We just had more of those students who decided ‘This is where I want to be,'” she said.

To accommodate for the larger number of students needing ENG 1000, the English department added three more seats to each section the week before classes started, said Dana Ringuette, chair of the English department.

“That course, because it is kind of intensive work with students, is held at 12 students per section,” he said. “Because we had so many, we allowed that to be raised to 15 which is not ideal or not what we want to do.”

Ringuette said that still did not take care of all the students who needed the course so an additional section will be offered next semester. In the past, only one section of the course has been taught.

Ringuette said there were almost twice as many students who needed the course than they could accommodate for.

Ringuette added he was notified of the problem in August.

“Then it’s a staffing issue. We just couldn’t add another section,” he said. “At that point in the semester, just before the beginning of the fall, things had already been assigned and we had a full schedule with our staff.”

Don Dawson, adviser in the Gateway program, did not know the exact number of students in Gateway who were not able to take ENG 1000 this semester, but knew of at least five or six who were not.

Students who could not get into the course did not suffer any adverse effect, he said.

Although he said this is the first year, the program has had a larger number of students not able to take ENG 1000 so they will not know until later.

He said usually only one or two students maximum have been unable to get into ENG 1000 in the past.

Dawson said students could take ENG 1000 in the spring, if they wanted ENG 1001G in the summer and finish up their English requirements by the following fall.

“To me, I don’t see it as a problem because a student then can pick up something else that they wanted to take. Like math, for example . and that way you can still stay on track to graduate,” Dawson said.

Ringuette said those students not in ENG 1000 this semester will all have full schedules. They will just have to take the composition course in the spring rather than the fall.

“They won’t have a composition course like many students did or are doing right now their first semester but there are other things that they can sign up for,” he said. “Frankly, it’s better to have (ENG 1000) in the fall than the spring, but there wasn’t much to be done.”

Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at eazulz@eiu.edu.