Course cancellation frustrates Kean senior

Leave a comment

By Chris Lamonica & Gerald Lima with Keanu Austin

Devon Sepe was excited to start her senior year at Kean University this semester—that is until she got an email a week before classes notifying her that a key course she needed to graduate in May was cancelled. Sepe received an email on Aug. 28 with news that still has her on edge today: her Honors Senior Seminar I in Earth Sci ence was cancelled.

The seminar is a two-part course offered over two semesters. Sepe was told the course was cancelled due to low enrollment, which left the Earth Science major puzzled.

“Our department is very small,” Sepe said. “A majority of the seats were filled, so I’m still not too sure why the course was cancelled.”

The course cancellation set off a chain of problems for the full-time student.

“For this fall semester, I only registered for 12 credits, since I completed most of my major requirement courses andminor courses,” she said. “However, this cancellation lowered my registered credits from 12
to 10, making me a part-time student.” Other students were also concerned that a course cancellation could turn their status from full time to part-time students, which can affect financial aid and possibly campus housing.

“I couldn’t find a replacement course to bring me back to full time,” Sepe said. “It would have been a waste of time, effort, and money to just take a random class to make me full time again.”

Further complicating mat ters, the Earth Science major managed to replace her cancelled Seminar with an Independent Study, but it’s worth just one credit, bringing her up to 11 credits for the semester.

Sepe then went back and forth between her professor and the Office of the Regis trar in a bid to have the course counted as two credits. When all was said and done, her Independent Study remained a one credit course and Sepe remained a part-time stu dent. However, she managed to get her expected graduation date back on track to May.
“I suppose I can say mostly everything worked out in the end,” Sepe said. “I spoke to my department head and he said that I should be fine since I’d have a replacement course. The whole process of figuring out my situation took about two weeks to be fully resolved, if that is considered resolved.”
Despite the resolution, she still had some lingering worries.
“I feel as though I would truly get a stronger education if I took the seminar course, compared to the Independent Study,” Sepe said. “At this point, I just need to graduate on time and not fool around with taking unnecessary courses.”

Comments - review our comment policy

Leave a Reply