by Enya Fierens
McPherson College requires students to take a class called Sophomore Seminar in either the fall or spring semester of their sophomore year. This class includes lessons on resumés and the job market and helps prepare students for life after graduation. Traditionally, Sophomore Seminar was taught by Dr. Tom Hurst, but he was unable to teach the class this year, so in the fall of 2024 the course was passed on to Sarah Wood, the former Director of Student Life.
Sophomores were ready to take this class in the spring. Then, at the start of the semester, Sophomore Seminar was cancelled and waived. Many students were happy to have one less class to worry about. But the real question is: “Why did the class get cancelled for this semester?”
Matt Cotton, the Student Affairs Operations Coordinator, helps us answer this question. Apparently, it all started when Sarah Wood became the new instructor for the class. After Dr. Hurst’s retirement, the college decided that the course was up for some modernization. The intent was to create a hybrid class where the students could come to class once every two weeks and complete the rest of the coursework online. This allowed the college to prepare students to be a part of the modern workforce once they graduate. The syllabus was rebranded with the help of Sarah Wood, which is part of why she was chosen to teach the class. Wood was expected to teach the class again this spring, but was offered a new position which she accepted not long before the semester was supposed to start. One of the reasons why Wood was able to leave with such short notice is because she was not a faculty member with a contract that would have required her to stay through the semester. This raised an interesting question regarding the use of staff members as teachers, and left the college with a bit of a problem, namely finding a new teacher in such a short time.
Instead of having someone with little experience teach the class, the college decided to have it cancelled. Sophomore Seminar should be up and running again by next fall, however, half of the 2024-2025 sophomore class have been exempted from the credit. Next fall, the syllabus will be revised and the college will be looking for a new teacher. It is likely that this position will be an internal hire because that individual would understand how to connect the ACE curriculum to the Sophomore Seminar class. Regardless of who teaches the class next year, students and faculty alike will certainly be watching to see how the situation is resolved.
