Being a Communications major at Chaminade has been a breeze, most of the time. I come to school, sit in class, then go back home. It was an easy routine to follow. However, when it comes time to register for classes, that’s when COM life becomes chaotic.
Majoring in a small department such as Communications at Chaminade means there are small classes in which we develop strong relationships with our peers while receiving hands-on, personalized instruction. But that’s only when the COM classes that we want to take are available.
Since I have come to Chaminade as a transfer student in Summer 2021, I’ve experienced consistent cancellations of COM 375 (Public Relations), COM 387 (Communications Internship), and COM 433 (Media Law and Ethics). This caused my intended graduation date to be pushed back by a semester.
One of my required classes is COM 433, and it was canceled three semesters in a row. With graduation around the corner, I needed to take the class so my professor insisted I retake a class I already took in substitution for COM 433. The class he wanted me to retake was COM 387, which was a class that was also canceled but I took as an independent study last semester.
Fifth-year Communications major Lizette Nolasco faces nearly identical challenges.
“Throughout my time here, I have ended up taking classes that I don’t need but took them because I needed to fill my schedule,” Nolasco said. “I am grateful for what I’ve learned in those classes but it is frustrating knowing that there were a few classes that I registered for multiple semesters in a row and all of them keep getting canceled.”
Both Lizette and I are at Chaminade on scholarships that require us to be full-time students. Because of these class cancellations, our schedules were never finalized until a month or two into the semester, causing us to always have a hold on the accounts. The consistent worry that having our scholarships revoked is a common thought during the first half of the semester.
“It’s virtually impossible to eliminate class cancellations for a lot of reasons, but we really are working substantially to reduce those course cancellations,” said Janet Davidson, Vice Provost of Academic Affairs. “We’re not going to let a student not progress because of it.”
Luckily, Chaminade has a few alternative options if a class is canceled. Students must go to an appointed professor to see if individualized studies, also known as independent studies, are available. In most cases, professors will abide. But sometimes they will suggest other classes that can substitute for whichever class was canceled.
According to Davidson, other deans and provosts are monitoring the issue as this is the first semester that all academic majors have a program director or coordinators.
“One of the things we are having real conversations about is, ‘What’s the whole balance between giving students a whole lot of choice in classes and being very prescriptive in what you take?’” Davidson said. “Because if we were prescriptive, we wouldn’t have any cancellations, but you wouldn’t have any choice. But if we give too many choices, then we have too many courses for students to fill.”
I’m glad Chaminade has recognized the issue and is working on resolving it. It gives me hope for upcoming students. At least our suffering will be worth it because in the end, graduating is all that matters and Chaminade has made it simple for students to make-up a canceled class.