Vinod is a sophomore majoring in Political Science and minoring in Sustainability Studies.
Throughout my time at Stony Brook University, I’ve strived to achieve academic success and have enjoyed my experiences with my professors and the resources they’ve provided me. However, one issue has continued to pester me each time I plan my class schedule in anticipation for the upcoming semester: course selection.
The first issue regarding course selection is that the Stony Brook Curriculum (SBC) list hasn’t been updated in regards to the classes available that fulfill each requirement. SBCs are the general education requirements at the University that every student must complete. The goal of these requirements is to make sure that Stony Brook students are proficient in academic fields outside of their majors or minors.
However, there are courses that fit the requirement to be part of the Stony Brook curriculum, but are not on the list.
For example, this semester I am enrolled in SUS 318 (American Environmental Politics). Even though this is an interdisciplinary course bridging the academic fields of Sustainability Studies and Political Science, SUS 318 is still not a course you can enroll in to fulfill the Understand the Relationship between Science or Technology and the Arts, Humanities, or Social Sciences (STAS) interdisciplinary requirement.
This outdated course selection policy could unnecessarily delay the graduation of students, as a class they could have taken to fulfill an SBC requirement isn’t registered in the undergraduate bulletin. Furthermore, its arbitrary requirements often result in students taking courses they are not interested in just to reap credits, potentially affecting their grade point averages.
Another issue with course selection is the requirement that you have to be an upperclassman to take certain courses — mainly upper-division courses. While it is possible that Stony Brook doesn’t want underclassmen to perform poorly in an upper-division course that is too challenging for them, the University lacks available avenues to let students enroll in such courses even when they complete necessary pre- or corequisites. For instance, last semester I asked the Political Science department if I could take POL 352 (Current Political Events) in the fall, as I had completed the prerequisite with an A-. However, because I am a sophomore, I was not allowed to take it.
Additionally, while updating the Stony Brook bulletin is part of the solution, the administration will also have to invest more money in academics to increase course offerings for underclassmen.
Though Stony Brook is currently experiencing a budget deficit, the University should try to get more money from New York State to hire more staff and increase the pay of instructors, which would lighten the workload for faculty members. Underclassmen, including myself, are eager to take upper-division classes. However, we are not able to do so because of the lack of monetary resources Stony Brook possesses since more lecturers can’t be hired and current lecturers are not being paid enough.
These changes to the course selections should be made in order to expand educational opportunities for underclassmen. The improvements would be beneficial for students and allow them to curate their schedules to take classes when they feel it’s the right time to do so.
