The difficulties some students face with creating their schedules

By Emma Robinson, Editor-In-Chief

When enrollment for spring 2023 opened to all students on Oct. 24, many students at Post struggled with creating their schedule due to a lack of availability in the courses they need in order to graduate on time. 

“Every semester I have a problem with finding courses,” junior marketing major Jess Morse said. “I get very stressed out when we have to enroll because I know there will be an issue … I have noticed a decrease in availability in many of my courses. I had a plan on what courses I would take each semester, and I can’t follow it because a lot of them are not offered. I am a marketing major, so many of the classes that are required for my major, like the marketing and business classes, are not offered, which is concerning.”

Morse has contacted her department head, as well as her Promise coach, for guidance when classes that are a part of her degree requirements are not being offered.

“In the past, if a class wasn’t offered before I would just hope that it would be offered the next semester and take it then. I am a junior now, so I can’t really do that anymore,” she said. “I am running out of time and it is getting more difficult each semester to find classes.”

Junior veterinary technology major Alan Krivenko has a difficult time making his schedule due to a lot of his class times conflicting with his required externship.  

“With the vet classes, some require externships during the junior and senior year two days a week,” Krivenko said. “My externship is on Wednesdays and Fridays, but when I was making my schedule, there were chem classes that conflicted with the externship.”

Krivenko knows multiple students that have had to take two classes that overlapped by more than 50 minutes. The student would leave one class early and arrive at the other class late every week. 

Junior fine arts major Liz Buckley thinks that there are limited options for professors teaching the courses that she wants to take, and this can harm her learning experience for specific topics.

“A lot of the fine arts and art majors are getting [their programs] cut, so it makes the variety of professors dwindle. I have the same professors for different classes now, because [the professors] are teaching classes that are not specific to their training and expertise. I feel like when I am in some of those classes, I don’t learn exactly what I’m supposed to because they don’t normally teach it.”

On the official LIU portal that students enroll in classes on, many courses are missing crucial information for scheduling. 

“Some of [the courses listed] don’t have the time the class is being held, or who the teacher will be until a few weeks before the class starts,” Buckley said. “That doesn’t work for everyone’s schedule. You’re basically gambling to get credits and if that doesn’t work, you are in a panic to figure something else out.”

Students are often unsettled while they create their schedules because they worry about being able to graduate on time. 

“[Making my schedule] has induced a lot of stress and anxiety and I hate feeling that way,” Buckley said. “It is only during enrollment where I get scared and anxious about my courses. I don’t think it should be like that, I think there should be people that are equipped to help you and to make that part of college easier. Students shouldn’t be stressed about if the university will offer them the necessary courses to graduate.”

When a student needs to take a course that is not being offered by the university, they can often request to create an independent study class for the semester.

Buckley reports having to contact multiple people, including her success coach, department chairs and professors in order to create an independent study course. 

“Classes I need to take aren’t [available] and independent studies are a pain because I don’t know which professors taught that class when it was running and I don’t know if they will want to come back and just teach one person … I am trying to get into an independent study now. I am trying to get into advanced painting, which I have to take [to graduate]. It was held and stopped being held in 2018.”

The Promise department provided the following response to questions regarding student concerns with creating their schedules:

“The Promise office seeks to assist students in making appropriate academic progress. Our coaches provide students with a plan of study. We can assist students in seeking available courses and, if they indicate a schedule conflict, our coaches can assist them. We can recommend finding an alternative class or facilitate communication with academic departments to inquire about appropriate options. Our goal for registration is to ensure students find courses that meet their degree requirements.”

As students are directly affected by the course options that Post makes available each semester, many have suggestions for the direction that the university could take to improve enrollment.

“I think the university can offer more options for classes and offer more teachers to teach those classes because having just one time frame and one teacher is impossible,” Buckley said. “When I thought I had my schedule semi figured out, the teacher switched and now my class time changed and no longer works with my schedule.”

Krivenko recommended that the university offer more time slots for classes that fill quickly. He says that the veterinary technology program students often compete to get into biology and chemistry classes with other programs, for example, the nursing program. 

“I think there should be more options for classes, rather than just one or two options for some classes,” Krivenko said. “It comes down to manpower, there are not enough professors to teach some of the classes that students want to take.”

While students may need to take the initiative in knowing what courses they need to take and when to take them, adjustments for course options and the times they are available are necessary to help improve the experience students have at Post. Students will not be as stressed if they know the courses they need to take will be made available to them without having to contact multiple faculty members regarding independent studies, substitutions and other alternatives each semester.