New Page 1

Campus Shenanigans

by David Reid

Recently my roommate found out one of his classes was cancelled for the spring semester, not because of a lack of interest, but because the school does not have enough teachers to teach other classes. My friend is a senior finance major and was going to take a class that would have helped him in his career in the future. The class needed a minimum of 11 students to enroll in order for it to be offered. Exactly 11 students enrolled and the class was ready for the spring. However, recently the teacher told the 11 students that the class can no longer be offered because they school needs him to teach an IC class for next year's freshmen instead. This left both my roommate and I puzzled both as to how the school can just drop a class and what he was going to do to fulfill his graduation requirements.

My roommate was upset about the school's decision to simply drop his class, just because they were understaffed. He called the Dean of Students shortly after he found out this information. He talked with the Dean extensively and asked him many questions, such as how can you just stop offering a class with 2 weeks left in the semester? How am I supposed to get enrolled in another class now that they are most likely all full? Why couldn't you hire another professor to teach IC? And are you going to let the 11 people in the class you dropped enter any class they choose? The Dean did not have satisfactory answers for most of these questions which left my roommate even more heated. The conversation ended with no resolution and my roommate still wondering how he is going to fulfill his graduation requirement. He directly asked the Dean if he could put him in a class of his choice and the Dean said no.

The problem is my roommate does not want to take some joke class. The class that was dropped was really going to benefit him and now most likely his new class will not. The Dean said he will try to help the students, but he could make no guarantees. It doesn't seem to me like just dropping a class is in the best interest of the school's students. I understand if not enough kids enrolled in the class to begin with, but this was not the case. And to tell students after registration, when almost all other classes are full is simply not fair to the seniors who are supposed to have first choice. If my roommate does not get enrolled in a new class of his choice, this issue could become a much bigger deal.