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Who Sets Our Priorities?

I've been wondering how Boalt decides what courses to offer, and whether students' interests and demands play any significant role. Here are some interesting stats from Tele-BEARS website:

Evidence Section 1:
Enrolled: 153
Waitlisted: 21
Enroll Limit: 161

Evidence Section 2:
Enrolled: 82
Waitlisted: 25
Enroll Limit: 91

Topics in Evidence
Enrolled: 23
Waitlisted: 2
Enroll Limit: 26

The Evidence Advocacy classes all have similar waitlists; that's right, every single evidence class at Boalt currently has a waitlist. Other core classes in substantive law are similar. Compare those numbers to:

Foundation Seminar in the Sociology of Law
Enrolled: 10
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 23

Law and the Emotions in Action
Enrolled: 3
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 10

Designing Strategies for Neglected Disease Research
Enrolled: 12
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 43

What's the take-home message here? I think it is that the allocation of course offerings at Boalt doesn't meet the demand. I think the extent to which there are empty seats in Foundation Seminar in the Sociology of Law, and standing room only in Evidence, is also the extent to which something is going awry.

The answer isn't to abolish Foundation Seminar in the Sociology of Law. The answer is to offer more Evidence classes. So, where is the holdup? It's obviously not students. Who does that leave?

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on January 15, 2009 (boomark / email).