Every first day of class speech goes the same for me every semester.
“Hi, my name is Andi Revesz. I’m majoring in multimedia journalism with a minor in sport management.”
Blah blah blah, you get the gist.
Yet, for my next and final semester here at Loyola, I’m going to have to change my speech.
While I was preparing to register for my final classes, I looked over my graduation requirements. Two more advanced journalism electives, journalism internship and one sport management elective. Simple and easy.
Registering for classes is something I actually like doing. I have multiple spreadsheets with every class I need to take to graduate in May — on time.
As I logged on to LOCUS — a terrible website in my opinion — I went immediately to the class search section and typed in “SPRT” to see which sport management electives were available for me to take in the spring.
Low and behold, there were two classes I could choose from — Sport Analytics and the Economics of Sport.
Both weren’t super intriguing to me, but I was drawn more to Sport Analytics, as I thought it would be able to help me as a future sports journalist.
I clicked on the class to add it to my shopping cart, so I could be ready to only click register when the time came. Little did I know, I would need a prerequisite to register in the class.
The deeper I went looking, the more confused I got. The prerequisite — BSAD 343 — doesn’t even appear to be on Loyola’s class search for the fall or spring semesters. In an even deeper search, it’s not even in the available classes listed under the official course catalog.
Now defeated, I took a look at the other available class, Economics of Sport. Do I really care about the economics of sport? Not particularly, but there was a smidge of interest from me, and I wanted to graduate with my minor.
Long story short, I ran into the same problem. This time, I was required to take both ECON 201 and 202 to enroll in the class. This is where the issue starts for me.
The sport management program at Loyola is small. I wasn’t able to plan ahead and see which classes I could take and figure out what the prerequisites were because I didn’t know if the classes I wanted were going to be available for the semester I needed them. I was stuck and didn’t know what to do.
I emailed my wonderful advisor at the School of Communication, who directed me to the program director of sport management. He was one of my professors earlier on in my years here, and I thought a desperate email would help.
My advisor warned me the School of Business wasn’t known for waiving prerequisites, but I tried anyway. Maybe they’d make an exception for the poor girl who wanted to get her degree on time.
Unfortunately, my plan fell through. My email was ghosted.
The day of registration came, and I started to worry. There was no way I’d be able to graduate with my sport management minor — which I’ve been working on since my freshman year.
With the future of my minor now gone, I needed one more class in my schedule to remain a full-time student at the university. Loyola’s class search found the perfect class for me — DANC 121.
A while back, I applied for graduation after receiving an email from the School of Communication to do so. Because of this, the ease of being able to change your own major or minor fell out of the palm of my hand.
A somber email to my advisor with a request to have her drop my minor pinged in her inbox. A few moments later, I received a notification saying my minor has been removed.
In a lovely response, my advisor told me in her heart, she believed I had the minor.
I was so close. Only one class away.
I know I’m not the first nor the last Loyola student to experience this sort of situation. Many students who are in smaller programs are having classes cut and scrambling to change their course of study, just to graduate in four years.
Something needs to change. Students should be able to plan their course of study without having to guess which classes are going to be available in the following semesters, and prepare for them by taking prerequisites.
If I knew ECON 202 was the reason I couldn’t complete my minor, I would’ve taken it. Would it have sucked? Probably, but now I’ll never know.
The university should help students prepare for the future. Isn’t that what college is about? The first step might need to be releasing scheduled classes earlier.
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Andi Revesz is a fourth-year student, studying Multimedia Journalism and Sport Management. Andi is originally from Trenton, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. This is her third year on staff, second as Sports Editor. When not writing or editing, Andi enjoys playing solitaire on her iPad and watching medical dramas.