What happens when your class gets canned
Correction: A previous version of this story listed Eric Riggs as the dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. This is not true he is the dean of the College of Natural Recourses and Sciences. We regret the error.
Deans and representatives from each of the three colleges at Cal Poly Humboldt confirmed that 12 classes were canceled within the 20 days before the start of the fall 2023 semester.
If you have had a class drop before the semester starts, there are multiple options available to students facing this issue such as academic advising including assistance from an advisor, cultural academic advising, staff at the career academic advising office and department specific counselors.
While canceled courses may seem like something that is out of most students’ hands, students actually play a bigger role in the course planning process than they might think. Information from the Degree Audit Report for Students (DARS) is accessible to admin and helps them understand student interest in a specific course.
According to Associate Dean at the College of Professional Studies, Justus Ortega, students who enroll in courses as early as possible can help keep a course on the schedule.
“I can’t emphasize enough, meet with your advisor. Lay out a three se- mester plan,” Ortega said. “The earlier we know that information and the ear- lier you get registered, the easier it is for us to know confidently what the class size is going to look like.”
Fourth year student Paul Neumeuer found out that his Health Education class was canceled three days before school started because the department was unable to find someone to instruct the course. The course was required for
his major and brought him from 13 to 10 units. His counselor had alerted him about the dropped course and helped him enroll in CSU online to fulfill the major requirement.
“At first it was hard finding a class online and then getting it all setup,” said Neumer. He said that overall the course is going well and that it only cost $41 dollars to enroll online at California State University Long Beach.
CSU fully online allows students to enroll in one online course offered from another CSU campus at no tuition cost (some fees may apply depending on the course). It should be noted that there is a possibility that other class options will not fit into a students schedule.
“Everytime you cancel courses it is inevitably going to negatively impact
somebody,” said Bori Mazzag, associate dean of academic affairs at the College of Natural Resources and Sciences. “We try to minimize that to the extent possible.”
Each dean said there were extensive conversations between the provost, deans and chairs at each department when deciding to remove a course from the schedule. Special consideration is given to classes with graduating seniors who would have graduation delayed.
“At the end of the day, we were really trying to preserve as many pathways as we could for all students,” said Eric Riggs, dean of College of Natural Recourses and Sciences.
