Students in the Communication Department at Manhattan College may be in for a rude awakening when they go to register for classes next semester, as a lack of course offerings may delay their graduation date for longer than expected.
Out of the eighteen courses that are required among the Advertising, Broadcasting, Journalism, and Public Relations concentrations in order to graduate, only seven are offered next semester. In addition, out of the 300 required courses among students in the School of Arts, Business, Engineering and Science, and all of their concentrations, only 107 are offered.
Rich Baxter, a transfer student and Public Relations major, had been eager for the release of available courses, as he was anticipating graduating in the spring. “There are no communications courses,” he over-exaggerated that same day, clearly frustrated. “They don’t even have the classes I need to take before I graduate. As of now I’m stuck taking two electives.” Even though his eyes were hidden from behind studded shades, they were obviously being rolled.
His only hope to fulfill his requirements would be the school’s Winterim courses, which oddly enough have not been released yet.
“Students already know when they come to the school that there’s a chance their graduation may be delayed if they don’t complete all their courses in time,” says Communication department secretary Melanie. “There’s nothing the school can do, the course are what they are.”
The fact that Manhattan College does not offer each one of their courses per semester is troubling. Why make a course mandatory for graduation if a student is unable to take it?
With only 132 professors campus wide, there is simply no way to offer the staggering 1324 classes listed in their course catalog each semester, especially if their popularity is dwindling.
The school’s website claims that “while Manhattan College will make every effort to offer courses in the semester and year listed, it reserves the right to do so depending upon a sufficient enrollment in each course.” In the communications department in particular, because of a diminishing amount of students enrolling in the program, classes such as Intro to Journalism are only being offered once a year, simply because there aren’t enough students to fill it.
Besides lack of interest, technological inadequacies have made it impossible for students to register for some required classes.
Manhattan College’s ‘Self-Service’ program is hated among all undergraduates especially when the dreaded registration period rears it’s ugly head. On the days when registration is open, student’s set their alarms for the crack of dawn, where they then scramble to log onto the server and register for their desired classes before each is filled, if they’re lucky.
Without fail, each semester the server gets “overloaded” and students are unable to log in, helpless behind their computer screen as their courses fill up. Once the classes are filled its simply ‘tough luck’ for these students, who are then forced to take courses that are unnecessary just so they can fill their schedule.
For students facing the possibility of having to stay an extra semester at Manhattan College, there are very few options. Like Baxter, students may have to rely on winter courses to fulfill their requirements, or take courses at another college and transfer the credits (if Manhattan College will accept the other school’s credits).
It is more than unfair though. Because of Manhattan College’s failure to offer a fair amount of courses and a server capable of accommodating it’s users, a student must pay for courses out of pocket just so they can graduate in time.
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