IT'S ALLEGEDLY PRODUCTIVITY. Yes, the student-credit-hours-per-faculty member is high, but the learning is negative.

Most remarkably, when it comes to teaching not just “facts” but conveying to students the scientific approach to problem-solving, research shows that students end up thinking less like professionals after completing [mass lecture] classes than when they started.

“In a very real way, you’re doing damage with these courses,” [Colorado Nobel Laureate Carl] Wieman, now a leading voice for reform, said in a recent interview.

State and federal policymakers are clamoring for more accountability and better graduation rates, and if faculty don’t step up, bureaucrats might. The National Center for Academic Transformation estimates that the 25 most common college courses — in subjects such as economics, English, psychology and the sciences — account for 35 percent of four-year college enrollment nationally.

I'm reminded of the craftsman's aphorism: good, fast, or cheap, pick any two.

I've been tempted to put together a long-term plan for an economics department in a medium-sized mid-major. Lets figure twenty sections each of income theory and price theory (principles of macro and micro, if you will) of not exceeding 35 students plus a full slate of upper-division classes and sufficient advisors to guide up to 200 capstone theses per semester. Works out to an economics faculty of about 45. My department is currently at 14.