Erika Garcia | Opinion Co-Editor
There are both perks and hidden disadvantages of going to a university or college that is compact like Buena Vista University (BVU). Unfortunately, one hidden disadvantage I failed to acknowledge and was in the dark about arose when I added a new major at the birth of my junior year. College is the place of self-discovery: thinking career-wise, not knowing what you want to do, where you are headed, or when adding or dropping new and old majors and minors is okay. That is, of course, until you run into the problem that occurred to me: class availability.
By availability, I am referring to those classes only offered every other spring or fall semester or those that only have one section. Upon adding a new major in the eve of my junior year and only having taken one course in that major, when I met with a professor in that department about my tentative schedule of classes, some interesting news was presented to me. I was told because of how the schedule was set up, I was supposed to have taken the capstone course at the same time I took my first Spanish course. There are not enough students with Spanish majors to have that course be offered frequently, which happens with other majors as well. Because Spanish capstone is part of the requirements of the major, I will eventually have to file an academic action and complete the course in independent study. Having to do independent study by myself and not be surrounded by others who prepped to take this course is like being robbed of an opportunity to share knowledge and continue to practice the language among high-level thinkers.
At other times, classes that are required for one or two majors just clash with each other in time scheduling, which then comes an internal battle of which major do I chose over the other? And of course, who could forget waiting until the next semester or year to take a course because you were an underclassman. Reflecting back on my own four year plan, another issue with class availability is when a course listed in the academic catalog has not been offered in my almost three years. Each semester, before we students register for class, I cross my fingers that on the current students webpage in the course listings the course is offered, but it never is.
My question to the class availability issue then is: does it come down to the number of student interest, availability on the professor to teach the course, or finding a professor who has the credentials to teach the course? Being in a university like BVU, the department sizes and the number of professors in that department varies but can be estimated to about three or four. It is then important to be “in know” when adding a new major at any point in your career. Colleges like BVU support the idea that it’s okay not to know what you want to do or where you want to go, but in term of class availability, it does not appear that way.
