By LIANNE BORNFELD AND MICHELLE YIN

Ellen Woods / Sun Staff Photographer
Bailey Hall holds lectures for “Introduction to Oceanography,” the most populous class at Cornell. This year, 791 students have enrolled in the class.

Where PSYCH: 1101 “Introduction to Psychology” once stood as the most populous class at the University, now BIOEE: 1540 “Introduction to Oceanography” has taken its place. With 791 students enrolled this semester, oceanography leads Introduction to Psychology by about 50 students.

About 600 student enrolled in oceanography –– which instructs students in both ocean functions and the current environmental threats they face –– last year, according to Prof. Bruce Monger, earth and atmospheric sciences, who teaches the course. Back then, Monger taught the course in Kennedy Hall, which has an maximum occupancy of 600 persons.

This semester, the class was moved to Bailey Hall to accommodate the approximately 200 student increase in class size.

“People were turned away because I couldn’t sit more students in the room [in Kennedy Hall],” Monger said.

With its home now in Bailey Hall, oceanography students fill two-thirds of the building’s seating occupancy.

“I want to fill Bailey. I want 1,200 students to take this class,” he said.

Five years ago, Monger said, about 130 students were enrolled in oceanography. Only when the class hit an enrollment of 300 students did the course relocate to Kennedy Hall, he added. According to Monger, enrollment has increased by about 150 students every year over the past three or four years.

“It cannot go forever, but I don’t know when it’s going to stop,” he said.

Monger said he attributes oceanography’s mounting class size to students’ general fondness for oceanic study above other scientific disciplines, in addition to his “enthusiastic” teaching style.

“It’s popular because everybody likes the ocean. There are a lot of people that like astronomy and a lot of people that like geology, but everybody likes the ocean,” he said.

Monger also said millennial students are very aware of global environmental issues. He said he tells students that, as informed citizens, they have the civic duty to share their knowledge and create a better world.

“Nothing is going to change from top down. It is only going to change from bottom up.  …This global warming issue is not going to change if you don’t raise your voice,” Monger said.

Although Monger acknowledged that the course’s growing enrollment may be in part due students’ need to fulfill their science distribution requirement, he said this students ultimately reap academic benefits.

“I hear it from students; they’re like, ‘I took it for a science distribution, but I got really surprised by how much I learned,’” he said. “I think they are very surprised by how much they learn and very proud of how much they learn.”

Oceanography’s reputation as an “easy” course is also a factor when adding the course, Jianan Su ’14 said. Su said that ultimately, for her, the course’s benefits amounted to more than its ease.

“Although I added this class because it is easy, I found the class very interesting. … I almost went to every class because I really liked the professor and never felt bored during the class,” Su said.
Monger also acknowledged the low rigor of the course, adding that he intentionally makes oceanography “fun and easy.”

“It is a pretty easy class to get a good grade, if a student puts in a sincere effort. … I like to take complicated science and bring it right down, like stripping out the noise and [giving] students a clear picture,” Monger said.

Students also said they added the course because Monger is an “inspiring” professor.

“It’s hard not to enjoy the class when the teacher is so genuinely eager to share the material, and, of course, blasts ocean-related music at the start of every lecture,” Noreena Lau ’16 said.

Max Van Zile ’17 echoed Lau’s sentiments in an email.“I switched in because I had heard from people and on the Internet that [Monger] was a really great professor,” Zile said. “I can’t speak for everyone, but I think a lot of people switch in because of the professor –– that’s why I did.”

Katharine Leigh ’15 added that “despite never having taken [oceanography, she] has heard so much about it –– it’s unavoidable.”

As the largest University class –– and growing –– Monger said he hopes oceanography will be added to the list of 161 Things To Do before graduating Cornell, adding that he wants to see informed students raising their voices.

“I want everyone who graduates from Cornell to go out into the world and remember to give back some amount of personal time and effort to make a better world for all the generations of people who are still to come,” he said.