More Students, Less Resources, and the Impact on our SIPA Education

(Art/Isabel Hou)

By Bridgette Lang and Sneha Sinha

During the first week back at school, a surprising scarcity of chairs became one of the biggest obstacles to learning. Extensive waitlists for popular courses left some students sitting on the floor, while others rushed to drag extra seats from hallways or scrambled to claim a spot before lectures began.

According to the Technology Policy and Innovation concentration newsletter, “So many students were admitted to SIPA that we’re now facing a dire chair shortage. Chairs are being swiped from all over the building as people move them into other spaces where they are needed. We put in a request for more chairs. Stand by to see if they are purchased.”

The shortage of chairs seems like an easy problem to solve, but the issue at its core is not:  overenrollment. There are too many students for the current amount of resources at SIPA.

Last October, total enrollment stood at 1,364, and each incoming class stood at slightly more than 500 students between the MPA and MIA programs. SIPA’s incoming class included nearly 200 more first-year students than usual, putting the number at around 700 (we invite the SIPA administration to release the official number, as it seems that professors and administrators are the only ones who have access to it now). Now with a huge increase in first-years, the hallways feel more crowded, Lehman is more packed than ever, and registration has become even more competitive.

This raises the question of how well SIPA can support this surge in students during a period of transition between a new curriculum rollout and political pressure from the Trump administration. Are resources being spread too thin, and how has the student experience shifted since last fall?

Even before the semester began, cracks were showing. International students completing internships during the fall semester encountered delays in securing F-1 Curricular Practical Training (CPT) authorization, which authorizes them to take on work relevant to their degree. As the start of classes drew closer, many worried they would be unable to begin their internships on time. After reaching out to Columbia’s International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO), second-year student Ame de Flores learned that CPT requests were on hold for ISSO processing.

CPT requests were put on hold because the SIPA administration had not updated ISSO with the new curriculum Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code assigned by the Department of Education. As a result, ISSO could not process requests until they received confirmation from SIPA. Providing inaccurate information or incorrect codes could cause F-1 visa issues for international students.

“This just proves once again that international students are never the priority… When it comes to the SIPA administration, it just gives me the impression that no one really knows the long term plan or vision at all. No one is thinking about implementation steps for their policies,” Ame said.

Ultimately, students and SIPASA successfully advocated for SIPA to update ISSO’s records and resolve the issue. The disorganization and lack of foresight during this incident in the summer were telling of the rest of the semester.

Students encountered more difficulties going into course registration linked to overenrollment. In late June, Maxim Visnovsky noticed that SIPA’s Tuition and Fees page indicated a maximum of fifteen credits per term, instead of the standard eighteen credits. MIA students taking language requirements were especially worried because these courses are often four credits, leaving them with only eleven credits at SIPA. Two weeks later, SIPASA president Aaliyah Khwaja broke the news that SIPA’s administration decided to reduce the credit load to fifteen. A few hours later, students received an email from the Office of Dean Yarhi-Milo formally notifying them of key changes to the curriculum – including a part-time option and the new credit cap of 16.5 credits.

Once again, students and SIPASA succeeded in getting the SIPA administration to reverse the cap back to eighteen credits. However, this interaction exposes a troubling issue. Since orientation week, SIPA students have been told to diligently use Stellic to carefully plan out their four semesters. SIPA’s administration threw those plans into question with unclear communication, leading students to feel that their money and time were being undervalued. Had the credit cap remained at fifteen, the cost per credit would have gone up by over 13% since last spring. 

In early August, students were notified of an updated course timetable – with courses now starting at 8 AM and ending at 9 PM and an earlier lunch break. This was another clear indication that there was a lack of classroom spaces, so classroom use times had to be expanded to accommodate everyone. 

After registration, courses had waitlists of upwards of 30 people. During the “add-drop period”, students had to sit on classroom floors to meet the attendance requirement for registration. In International Energy Project Finance, waitlisted students were kindly asked to leave or watch the Zoom recording so registered students could sit. Multiple sections of Quantitative Analysis I and Economics were added last minute to meet demand. However, these additions occurred only after registration, forcing some first-year students to rearrange their schedules and placing additional strain on professors and teaching teams. 

Given that SIPA administrators enrolled an additional 200 students, the school must also expand capacity. That means offering more classes so students aren’t crammed into overenrolled lectures, ensuring professors aren’t overworked, and converting unused spaces into classrooms or study areas. It also means hiring more staff to handle the growing administrative demands that come with a larger student body.

Of course, these challenges don’t exist in a vacuum. Other factors are at play, including the political and financial strain created by the Trump administration. It’s possible that the SIPA admissions team was unable to accurately predict enrollment due to potential visa issues and decided to increase enrollment in the case that the availability of student visas changed suddenly.

The financial strain from Columbia’s monetary settlement with the Trump administration still weighs heavily on the University. The money has to come from somewhere, and it’s possible that increased enrollment in revenue-producing programs was used to solve this issue. Unfortunately, SIPA students seem to be bearing the consequences as they struggle to access resources with the increase in students.

Most of us did not come to SIPA expecting one-on-one instruction from professors or classes in a shiny, new building. Policy work is rarely glamorous, and policy education doesn’t have to be either. But bringing students into an environment where their basic learning needs aren’t met is unacceptable. Although some of these issues were inevitable, students ask the SIPA administration for transparency in decision-making and more information on what the next steps are. At the very minimum, we want to know when changes are being made and how these changes will impact our learning.