Changes to documentation gives Wabash the clear
At a school where tradition is supreme, change can be difficult for the Wabash community. This semester, students and faculty have had to deal with a change in the organization of academic courses – the fourth hour.
The fourth hour entered the Wabash lexicon about a year and a half ago when the College was going through its decennial (10-year) accreditation process. Accreditation, in very simple terms, is when a reviewer approved by the Department of Education certifies that an academic institution is meeting all required standards of quality.
The Higher Learning Committee (HLC), Wabash’s regional accreditor, brought to the College’s attention a section of the Code of Federal Regulations they believed Wabash was failing to meet. The federal standard for a credit-hour is one hour of direct instruction in class and two hours of out of class time – homework, for example.
At most colleges and universities, classes are either three or four credit-hours per week; a three hour per week class meets in person for three hours, and then students would be expected to spend six hours a week not in person working on the class. The math is the same for a four credit-hour class – four hours in person and eight hours not in person for a total of twelve hours per week.
Wabash, on the other hand, does not use a credit-hour system. Rather, by and large, every full-semester course is worth one credit. Thus, instead of a credit-hours threshold to graduate, Wabash students need thirty-four credits.
The issue, the accreditors determined, was that the College was equating all of its one-credit courses with four credit-hour courses under federal regulations, even if the course only met for three hours in person – like many courses at the College.
While Wabash students were hitting the twelve hour per week threshold they weren’t getting the four hours of in person instruction – the critical element of the equation. Thus, the HLC instructed that every course that did not meet in person for four hours a week had to now add and document that missing “fourth hour” of in person instruction per week.
The solution on the College’s part was having faculty explicitly state in their syllabi when and where the extra in-person hour of instruction would occur. Because Wabash students often already hit the total hour requirement for four credit-hour classes, the solution did not require additional work for students; rather, it was a matter of clearly stating a larger portion of the outside of class work students were already expected to do.
“The accreditors did not leave here [Wabash] thinking that our courses weren’t of the kind of quality required or that students were being shortchanged on their education,” said Wabash Registrar Jon Jump. “I know in a lot of classes – classes with language labs, lab sciences, art and film courses – labeling that fourth hour of instruction is not going to be an issue. The issue truly was documentation.”
After receiving the HLC’s directive, faculty spent time deliberating what a solution might look like. It was decided in early spring of 2023 that the best course of action was to adjust the wording of syllabi, but only a few months remained before the next school year.
Under a time crunch, faculty had to rewrite their syllabi and turn them in to department and division chairs for approval before the school year began.
“Given that timeframe, I think the implementation has been surprisingly smooth,” said Brian Tucker ’98, professor of German and chair of Division II at Wabash. “I’m impressed with the job people have done. People have adapted quickly, they’ve been creative. I think people are also hopefully starting to think about this in ways to be more creative about how they can use time to help students learn more.”
Last week, the College submitted a report to the HLC to show the College has amended areas of concern. Two syllabi from every academic department or program were needed for evidence in the report. The College received confirmation Wednesday the HLC approved the report and that Wabash met every standard.
“Compliance across the faculty was very, very good in terms of getting us the material that we needed for the report,” said Jump. “There was variety in how well the fourth hour was addressed across the faculty, but it was not hard to find that minimum of two per program to submit to the HLC.”
The big question this semester is how the changes to syllabi and the few courses that needed additional in person instruction opportunities will work out in practice.
Last semester particularly, students were worried that the addition of a fourth hour might mean extra work in every class, which could seriously hamper students’ abilities to balance other responsibilities to work, sports, clubs or any other number of extracurricular activities Wabash men devote time to.
“The general consensus I heard on campus in reaction to the fourth hour was, ‘Oh, this means more work,’” said Michael Enz ’26.
“For me personally, as someone who has a busy schedule, I was thinking that another hour for each of my classes sounds a little bit unbearable,” said Luis Rivera ’25. “I certainly was worried, and I shared a lot of students’ stresses and fears.”
Despite initial reactions of apprehension from students that the fourth hour would mean a lot more schoolwork, faculty worked hard to ensure the additional hour of in person instruction the HLC wanted to see was found within the established schedules of courses. The hope, and the result so far, was for no unnecessary coursework tacked onto existing schedules.
“I didn’t find it was that much of a change for me, personally, and I think this has been the experience for a lot of faculty,” said Tucker ’98. “It is a matter of thinking about what you do, being conscientious and clearly documenting that there is enough direct instruction time in your classes.”
Trying to strategically layer in events under the fourth hour umbrella that students would already be attending has had success so far with some students.
“It’s been fine because, especially as a senior in higher level classes, oftentimes it’s layered into things I would already do,” said Rivera ’25. “For more introductory classes it might be different, but it hasn’t affected me that much.”
However, it may turn out that some classes do have more work. Students in some introductory or non-major courses in disciplines such as economics and music, among others, have been assigned to attend more events outside of class than in previous terms. To solicit feedback, both the faculty and Student Senate Academic Policy Committees (APC) plan to conduct surveys of students and faculty at some point this academic year.
Amid concerns that students may be overloaded if classes required a substantial uptick in time, faculty appear to be ready to meet those concerns and put them at ease.
“I think it’s a good thing that Wabash students do a variety of things,” said Tucker ’98. “I don’t think it would be better for our students to pull back from the other things that they do. I think that being involved on this campus is one of the important parts of our education.”
Wabash is still in the early days of the fourth-hour adjustment, and it is yet to be seen how the change – however major or minor it ends up being in practice – affects students and faculty. While students may still be worried, anticipation for the possibilities the fourth hour opens up are also apparent.
“I hope as this fourth-hour thing develops, the College can construct events or have a policy where the events students go to for the fourth hour are super interactive,” said Enz. “I hope the events explicitly relate to what we’re talking about in class.”