Give us future course listings

Something that SMU should be dedicated to is bettering the educational experience for its students. It has even started the Centennial Campaign to make SMU a better place – somewhere that fosters more education and creativity and makes the community great. In this spirit, I have an idea.

I had a thought awhile back, when I found out the one class I need to finish one of my majors isn’t being offered this semester, when it was usually offered both semesters, that it would be absolutely fantastic if SMU would tell students what classes are being offered for more than one semester at a time.

For example, when it rolls around to March and April, instead of just seeing the courses offered for the following fall semester (well, and the two summer sessions, if you can afford a semester with no federal financial aid) it would be a big help for all students if they could see what’s being offered in the fall and in the next spring.

I complained to a few friends about this and was surprised to learn that other schools have this in place already and have for years! SMU is behind on the times, and it’s doing a great disservice to its students by not incorporating this policy.

Surely if UTD can pattern themselves after Harvard, which does this, SMU can do so as well. Many schools that do this have more students and more faculty than SMU. Let’s look up to our benchmark schools and take a page out of their books.

This would be a great tool for students trying to plan their academic careers. If I could know when I need to take what classes, such as if a class is only offered every two, three or four years or is usually only offered at a study abroad location, then I can make room in my schedule for the class, instead of having to choose between a class I want and am interested in and a class I have to take for the GEC because I don’t know if I’ll have a chance to take that required course later.

Of course, students would have to understand that these future course listings wouldn’t be set entirely in stone. Obviously, if a professor decided to go on sabbatical or something happened and they couldn’t offer the class they planned on offering a couple of semesters in advance, then the class wouldn’t be offered, unless another professor could teach it. But, I would expect that SMU students are reasonable and would understand if a course was cancelled or a new one was added, and would also understand that these future semester listings would have to be flexible.

I know my semesters here at SMU would have been much more efficient if SMU had offered more than one semester of course listings at once. Maybe I could have triple majored in four years, instead of the five it’s going to take me, and that includes taking summer classes. I would have liked to go abroad for a semester, but it doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to fit that in, and I’m someone who tries to meticulously plan out my semesters.

If I was able to see more semesters’ worth of course listings, instead of flipping through the book I was given as a freshman that is now in at least three different pieces from being used so much and getting thrown on the floor after discovering that a large chunk of the courses listed in there that I wanted to take are normally only offered abroad, then I could have planned my academic career a little better, and SMU might not be stuck with me for another year.

And, if I could have to triple majored in four years and in three departments that are completely unrelated, then many other students could have double or triple majored as well and gotten more for their money.

Katy Rowe is a senior English and anthropolgy major. She may be contacted at [email protected]