Not Always a Student’s Favourite Words
By Theresa Vande Burgt
Students experienced a rocky start to the fall semester at Lakehead Orillia when a number of classes were unexpectedly cancelled.
The sudden cancellations affected students enrolled in Introduction to Psychology 1110, Behaviour and Drugs 3401, and the Psychology of Human Sexuality 3715, and left them without a professor. Students were informed by email the day of the cancellations and were told to wait for further instructions.
In a matter of days, the former two classes were assigned a new professor and resumed as scheduled. However, this was not the case for students enrolled in Psychology of Human Sexuality, who did not attend their first class until two weeks later, October 1st.
“I wasn’t sure whether I still had a class or not.” said third year student Kim Garcia. It wasn’t until two weeks later that she was informed that the class would be assigned a new professor and that it would resume.
Kim also found that she would have to purchase a new textbook, and that the schedule would have to be organized differently than originally planned in order to stay on track. “I feel now that we are very rushed for time. And with the new professor being in Thunder Bay, it makes it more difficult to communicate with him.”
“It was a staffing issue that needed to be resolved, and new instructors were reassigned as quickly as possible.” said Dr. Jobin-Bevans, Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities when asked why this incident had occurred. “This was completely unexpected and we tried to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”
In order to make up for lost time and to ease the minds of students, Professor Rupert Klein was flown out to the Orillia campus on Thursday, October 8th, by the University so that questions could be answered and the schedule could be corrected. “Students should be very happy under his instruction, as he is very understanding of the situation and the most qualified Professor we can provide.” said Dr. Jobin-Bevans.
Now that anxieties have been soothed and classes are back on track, Lakehead students are prepared to face the rest of the semester.