By Anthony Medina
The Department of Academic Affairs dropped 135 courses from the campus registry in August before the start of Fall Semester 2017, according to Provost Panayiotis Meleties.
A total of 810 students were dropped from their courses, with around six students in each course, according to Meleties in an emailed response for comment. He also mentioned the creation of 15 new courses for incoming students this semester.
“During the week before classes begin, the Office of Academic Affairs is in constant communication with the Office of Admissions and the Advisement Center to evaluate the needs of incoming students,” Meleties wrote.
Courses are subject to cancellation when they don’t meet double digits in occupied seats, aren’t major requirements, and have insufficient faculty members to teach.
The Department of Physical Sciences faced 17 course cancellations out of their 78 available courses, according to department head Timothy Paglione. Nineteen sections were over-tallied due an increase in enrolled students, he added.
Many departments at York faced similar issues with many enrolled students unable to apply for the courses they needed and had to find substitutes for their dropped courses.
Department of the Behavioral Sciences head Deborah Majerovitz recognized the issue with required courses for students being dropped before the start of the semester. Nearly 250 students communicated through the Behavioral Science department about not being able to complete their requirements because the necessary courses weren’t being offered, said Majerovitz in an emailed response.
Out of the 250 students Majerovitz heard from, she was only able to help about half enroll in the courses needed to graduate.
“If a student was graduating after this semester or could not proceed through the major without that course this semester, I tried my best to overtally them, leading to ‘stuffed’ classrooms,” wrote Majerovitz. “However, many students could not get back into the courses they wanted because they didn’t need the course immediately, or because the timing of the remaining spaces did not fit their schedule. These students all were turned away, and there were many.”
The deadline to file for financial aid was June 30, but some students faced difficulty paying their tuition on time.
“On August 18, students who had an outstanding balance over a chosen amount were dropped from all their courses,” wrote Majerovitz. “They were not sent a warning in advance. Now, many of them knew they owed money and knew there was a deadline. But others had filed their Financial Aid forms on time. These students had no idea they would be dropped.”
The department of Business and Accounting also faced serious impacts from the decrease in courses. Professor Phoebe Massimino discussed her concern about the large course drop early this month. She later confirmed the combination of two economics courses with 58 students enrolled.
“We had students that didn’t even know their classes were dropped,” said Massimino.
Over the course of a week, Massimino heard from 170 students concerned about their schedules being altered. The following week she would hear from another 100 or so students questioning the stability of their courses. She lost 13 out of 100 classes for this semester, which is 11.5 percent of her courses.
Any student who is facing similar issues with deregistration, dropped courses, and over tallying courses should reach out to their prospective departments. Those affected by deregistered courses and lost financial aid should report to the Bursar’s and Financial Aid offices for further help.