The following is written on behalf of the Postbac Student Body and our fellow Columbia classmates by Hannah Ressinger, President of the PPSC of Columbia University:

To the Faculty of the Department of Chemistry and of Columbia College at Columbia University,

We, the past, present, and future students of Columbia University’s Organic Chemistry Laboratory course (CHEM W2494), would like to bring to your attention the overwhelming workload that has been assigned for the course. While we understand the importance of a rigorous laboratory curriculum, we believe that the amount of work assigned is excessive, unreasonable, unnecessary and disproportionate for its credit load. We respectfully request that the workload be reduced to a more manageable level.

As you are aware, the course requires a significant amount of time and effort outside of lecture and lab sessions, far exceeding the 4.5 hours of work and class per week recommended for a 1.5 credit course by the accreditation requirements of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. For reference, more information on Columbia's credit system can be found here.

As students with full schedules and other commitments, we are expected to complete lengthy pre-laboratory assignments by hand, conduct time-consuming experiments, write detailed lab reports, complete complex homework assignments, and prepare for quizzes. Any single one of these items could exceed the weekly time commitment expected for a 1.5 credit course, and the total time for all assignments combined often overshadows the hours spent on other courses worth many more credits. This feedback has been given in force via the semester-end course reviews and has not seen any acknowledgement or reduction in workload.

While we appreciate the opportunity to learn and grow through this course, we believe that the current workload is detrimental to our academic success. Additionally, we believe that the current workload places undue stress on students, which can have a significant negative impact on mental health. We respectfully request that the amount of work assigned for this course be reviewed and reduced to a more reasonable level. A few methods for reducing the workload might be cutting down the number of lab reports and quizzes, no longer requiring lab notebooks to be handwritten (as the notebooks are now turned in online rather than in carbon copy form), and shortening the homework assignment length.

We believe that such changes would greatly benefit our academic experience and enable us to focus on understanding and mastering the material without compromising our overall well-being.

Thank you for considering our petition.

Sincerely,

The Organic Chemistry Laboratory Students of Columbia University