You might have missed hearing about an important change within your department because not enough people are talking about it both inside and outside of the department.
This wasn’t the case with the introduction of the new minor in entrepreneurship. Georgia State University News’ coverage of it was timely and kind. But not every change in the undergraduate catalog is announced as widely by Georgia State News or by the departments themselves.
For example, the Certificate of International Business was removed recently as an option for International Business students within the Robinson College of Business (RCB), leaving students fulfilling requirements for the certificate unable to attain it.
While students who have already fulfilled the certificate’s requirements could have applied and probably gotten it, it’s now not an option for students currently fulfilling its requirements.
Those students can seek the comparable minor in international business as it currently appears on the Institute of International Business’ website, and will need to fulfill 15 credit hours for it, similar to the 12 hours following a BUSA 3000 class the certificate required.
The problem with this is that students who have a determined line of coursework planned for their college career may not be able to afford to accommodate other classes in order to fulfill their goals, and not all classes that worked toward the certificate count under the minor.
Also, the change is not apparent on the Institute for International Business’ website. The website for the unavailable certificate is still there on RCB’s page, and there is a separate page for the minor, which can cause confusion, as students might be led to believe that both are available, when only the minor is.
This this is likely a byproduct of a transitional period within RCB, but is still problematic since students sometimes only catch wind of these changes when their teacher tells them during class time.
This is just one example of the type of change I’m referring to. I’m sure upperclassmen from all departments have their own stories regarding similar changes that set them back a semester or two, or made them have to take a larger course load than they were planning.
Though the undergraduate catalog has wonderful breakdowns of four-year plans to fulfill requirements, those plans are ultimately ineffective if the student doesn’t know about the changes within their own departments and colleges.
What might help students’ awareness of these changes is more news updates like the one preceding the new entrepreneurship minor. Even then, Georgia State University News is not the most widespread media outlet the university has to offer, and they can’t cover every change within each department.
E-mail is always the most effective way to communicate with students. Any changes in requirements within departments should be broadcast to students through widespread e-mails, regardless of how miniscule the change might seem. It could make the difference between graduating on time or a semester late.
As a side note, there has been, in my experience, a wonderful yet misplaced consistency in email correspondence within the College of Arts and Sciences.
As an English major who started my college career with a declared Philosophy major, I still get emails from the Philosophy department, even though I changed my major years ago. This is my own fault for not unsubscribing.
But I greatly appreciate the regular emails I get from from Heather Kerry Russel alerting me to new internship opportunities. They’ve proved to be extremely helpful in my academic career.
And it’s this kind of dedicated correspondence I’d call on every academic department to utilize with regard to even the subtlest of changes in their course requirements.
It is true these issues can be raised during advisement, but as helpful as advisement meetings are, their weakness lies in the fact that they put a whole lot of responsibility on students to learn fundamental things about their academic experiences before meeting, things that students may not know to ask about.
Students are generally expected to learn the ins and outs of their departments and plan their academic careers accordingly, but the problem is that they simply don’t know what they don’t know, and sometimes don’t have the awareness to make use of resources available to them.
It should be up to the departments themselves to give the students that knowledge by disseminating it as widely as possible and as soon as possible, no matter how discreet or tentative the change might be.
For the time being, though, freshmen and sophomores should begin to think about these things as they fulfill their core requirements.
This way, they’ll be able to be well on their way to completing their degrees, even if they choose to change their majors early on. And once they settle on a major, they’ll be able to keep an eye on the subtle, unannounced changes that occur within their majors’ departments.
Students and advisors alike should work to communicate with each other better that students might best strategize their way through college in ways that suit them, and to not be beleaguered by obstacles both announced and unannounced.
