Boston University student Phoebe Enstad picked out all of her classes for the fall semester during summer orientation, leaving Tuesdays open for an office job she would start when she came to school.
When she arrived in September, Enstad, a College of Communication freshman, found a class had been unexpectedly added to her schedule.
‘The COM 102 class popped up on my schedule and I lost the job at the office because they needed me to work on Tuesdays,’ she said.
COM 102 is a new class offered specifically for COM freshmen. Each class session plays host to representatives from BU offices, such as Student Health Services and the Community Service Center, who inform students about the resources their offices have to offer. The class meets for an hour every week and is worth one credit.
COM 102 is a pass or fail class, so students can pass by simply attending the lectures and taking the weekly quizzes based on reading assignments.
‘The class doesn’t require much preparation,’ Enstad said. ‘It’s more of an inconvenience.’
The students are also required to hand in a two-page final paper at the end of semester, discussing how they have grown, but COM freshman Alice Wang said many students are not planning on handing it in.
‘They have enough points from attendance and the quizzes to pass the course,’ she said.
The textbook, titled ‘Foundations for Learning,’ is not useful, because it covers common sense topics, such as diversity in college and being an active learner, Wang said.
Yesterday’s lecture was about proper note taking and how to take tests, skills Wang said students have practiced throughout high school.
Last year, a similar class existed, but students asked administrators to expand it, COM Assistant Dean Micha Sabovik said in an email.
‘COM CO 102 was created to help our freshman population get acclimated to Boston University and COM over the course of the semester, instead of packing in a lot of this information during orientation,’ Sabovik said. ‘We want to ensure our students feel like part of the university community.’
COM staff members will evaluate the class at the end of the semester to determine whether it will be mandatory next fall, Sabovik said. The staff does not yet know if other colleges will make a similar mandatory course for their freshmen. The class is required for COM freshmen this semester because its content is specific to COM as well as BU.
COM Senior Academic Counselor Cecilia Lalama, who brainstormed and teaches the class, could not comment because of Student Services policy.
COM freshman Kayla Flaherty said though she is frustrated with the class, she understands why it is offered.
‘It does have benefits,’ Flaherty said. ‘Some freshmen are scared and everything is new. They don’t just leave you to sink or swim.’
Nina Semczuk, another COM freshman, said she did not like how COM forced the class upon her and her classmates.
‘I had to drop a fitness class when I found out I had to take this one,’ she said.
Students do not put any effort into the class, Semczuk said.
‘During one lecture we learned about how to use BU’s website,’ Semczuk said. ‘It was just 400 students, bored and not taking it seriously.’
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