The Right to Choose: The New Student Course Selection System
*Article written by Isabella Gualtieri, Meagan Mellor, and Nora Malhi*
The Marianopolis administration has recently implemented a new course selection system that no longer allows students to choose their course timings and professors. In a MIO sent out by the College, the system was described as aiming to make the registration process more “student-centered” and “efficient”. Coming into effect for Science students this upcoming Winter 2023 semester and for all other programs by next Fall 2023, a survey was sent out by The Marianopolis News Blitz on Friday, October 14th to gauge student opinion. Within less than 24 hours, 239 students responded with their thoughts on this change and how it would affect their personal lives. Although Congress has yet to make a statement, the results of the survey demonstrate that student opinion is overwhelmingly negative surrounding the new change, with 93% of Health and Pure and Applied Science students responding that they would prefer the old schedule and 94% of all other programs also answering that they would prefer the old system.
Many have taken to social media or to the Blitz’s survey to voice their outrage over the situation. Those who responded to the survey have cited a variety of reasons for why they consider the new system a step backwards including inconvenience, loss of independence, impacts on mental health, and a lack of time for essential outside-of-school activities. Students have expressed feeling like the new system will take away their autonomy in the college, questioning how CEGEP is supposed to prepare them for university: “If I won’t be able to pick my teacher or the time slots I want for each subject, then what difference is CEGEP from high school?”. Additionally, students fear that not having control over which professors they choose will make it difficult to get to know their professors or take teachers whose teaching style resonates with their learning style, with one student stating, “the time of courses as well as the professor teaching said course will drastically affect the performance of a student [and if] a student […] wishes for a professor to write them a letter of recommendation, they won’t have the opportunity to choose the factors that will facilitate this.”
One FAQ created by the College related to the new system states that students should “avoid booking other activities, such as work and extracurricular activities” between 8:15am to 6:15pm (and until 4:15pm on Fridays) until they receive their schedules in January, however this scheduling demand remains mostly unfeasible for students needing to balance their school and home lives. Furthermore, many who attend Marianopolis travel long distances just to get to class everyday. One individual sees this demand as one which will greatly impact their commute times and personal health, “since I am paying for the services the College offers, I believe that I must have the right to pick the hours of my schedule. I live far and I usually wake up at 5 am for my 8:15 classes […] if they end at 6, I come home by 7:30-8pm, meaning that I get 5 to 6 hours of sleep on those days”. Several students even see the new system as a threat to their very enrollment at the College, as their ability to make a schedule that accommodates their working situations is what allows them to pay tuition. This is reflected in a statement given by a student who was interviewed:
“Last year, I worked 16 hours on weekends to afford to pay for my own tuition. Thankfully, with the College’s help, I received a scholarship. Without that, I would still have to work part-time to afford tuition costs. However, next year I will need to work part-time regardless; I’m scared I won’t be able to because of the new scheduling.”
Another student argued the same, seeing the new system as impossible to meet student needs:
“I picked my schedule specifically to have the time to work. I have Wednesdays off, so I can catch up on extra studying to be able to manage to work 20 hours in a three-day period. Without that scheduling opportunity, I feel like my grades would drop. And I can’t quit anyway, because I pay for everything I own– and all my school supplies.”
Student responses show that the new scheduling system seems to have more cons than pros, as it appears to be restricting students’ personal lives on every level, even religious practices. One Jewish student when interviewed expressed anxiety over the new course selection system potentially hindering their ability to observe Shabbat:
“As a Jewish student in CEGEP with a lot of work, I miss out on the observation of different holidays to prioritize my education. The one thing I found myself still observing was Shabbat. Shabbat is a Jewish day of rest where one is not supposed to partake in any labour or use electricity. This obviously is difficult in modern times, and I don’t participate in this part, but I am expected to attend Shabbat dinners every Friday with my family. The holiday and prayers begin at sunset, which is currently around 6 pm. Having the independence to make a schedule lets me finish earlier on Friday, to prepare for the holiday. If the school picks my times for me and I end up with a class at 4 on a Friday, I cannot observe Shabbat. I do not think the school intended for Jewish students to miss holidays, but it is still a consequence they didn’t think of.”
While it is possible for the administration to take into account students’ personal needs when scheduling, it seems highly unlikely and counter-productive to automate schedules just to have them changed to address everyone’s individual circumstances. Ultimately, opinion from student interviews and the survey demonstrates that students are disillusioned with a decision that neither consulted their opinions nor seems to accommodate their needs, with one of many students feeling that the reason they came to Marianopolis has been threatened with this change:
“It is a confusing, unnecessary and absolutely incomprehensible change to the old course selection that defined why I decided to come to Marianopolis: the freedom as a student to choose our own education.”
