Student David Draper can't get into the classes he needs.
Draper, a biology major, wants to attend UNM's medical school. He shares classes with students in the Bachelors of Arts and Medicine program - a degree plan that allows freshman looking to enter medical school to get their bachelor's degree in four years.
The University has offered the BA/MD program for two years. The exclusive program ensures its students will get into the classes they need to graduate within the four-year time span.
Draper said the preference BA/MD students get with their degree plan interferes with his own.
"I've always had labs with these kids, and it has never been an issue until I couldn't get into one," he said.
BA/MD student Renee Honeyfield said the program is too small to cause an inconvenience to biology students.
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"Our biology classes are at least 75 to 100 students," she said. "Chemistry is even larger than that. There is plenty of room. There are few, few classes where we've been given spots that allot no more spots to other students."
Draper, a junior, said he was trying to yellow card into a biology 204 class but was denied entry. The class was full, and the number of BA/MD students in it made it so there weren't enough seats for students not in the program, he said.
"It has made it harder to get into these biology classes because these kids have preference," he said.
Sam Loker, chairman of the biology department, said BA/MD students do have certain perks as a result of the program's guaranteed four-year degree plan.
"Part of the program is to favor the students who have been so admitted by their access to particular courses in sections that - I wouldn't say others are not entitled to be in - but for which they are guaranteed a spot," he said.
Draper said all students should be treated equally when it comes to high-demand biology classes.
"I don't think those students should get any sort of preference to take classes over other students," he said. "We're all going for the same thing. We're all going for pre-med school. I have classes with some of these kids, and honestly I don't see the difference between them and myself."
Honeyfield said she doesn't want to upset other students by having a reserved seat in high-demand classes.
"I think that them knowing that we're just freshmen and sophomores ... and that we already have the spots saved for us kind of upsets some of them," she said. "Especially the ones that didn't know about the program or especially if it wasn't around for them."
The high demand affects biology students more than BA/MD students, Loker said.
Only so many labs can be run for so many hours in the day, he said.
"We try to do the best we can every semester by opening up additional sections," he said.
Phil Ganderton, director of undergraduate students in the BA/MD program, said the inability of biology students to get into high-demand classes has a lot to do with the University's limited resources.
"I know that Sam Loker would love to be able to say, 'Look, we'll offer two sections or another section,'" he said. "The problem is that the finances don't allow him. He doesn't have enough money to hire another professor or to hire a lecturer or to hire a part-time instructor to teach that additional course. All chairs of the departments are struggling to meet the demand of the students with the resources that we currently have."
Draper said his inability to get into a biology 204 class this semester has set back his graduation date.
"I don't have anything against the BA/MD students," he said. "I just don't see why my education should have to suffer because of them."
