At the end of last semester, I had successfully enrolled in six classes. Having spent a good deal of time carefully selecting professors and mapping out class times, I felt pretty good about my schedule. Fast forward over a month later, and I am panicking, realizing an entire course just disappeared from my schedule. 

My Spanish 102 class had vanished from my current course line-up for the spring. I had just taken Spanish 101 last semester, and it was strongly advised the following course be taken immediately the following semester so the student would not forget all they had learned. 

My professor even stated that students in the past who did not take Spanish 102 the following semester did not do as well as those who did. So when I discovered that class had been dropped without warning, I was furious and concerned for my future success in that class.

Losing the knowledge I had gained was not my only worry. The class dropping brought my credit hours down to the minimum 12 hours required to retain TOPS. I always take over the minimum as a safety net due to the possibility of having to withdraw from a class in the middle of the semester. This led me into another dilemma: finding a last minute class to fill the gap.

I checked to see if there was a different Spanish 102 that I could take, but all that remained was an internet course which required approval. I scrapped the bottom of the barrel for any other course I needed to take that would not clash with my other enrolled classes until I found a history class.

I understand classes are dropped for various reasons and are an unavoidable issue, but all of this hassle could have been evaded had the university just sent out an email. This would be a much more efficient way to handle the situation. 

Plus, it’s simply courteous. Teachers love being warned if you are going to miss a class, so can we please be warned about dropped classes?