Poor Communication; MacEwan Students are frustrated with the University
“I hope there’s more flexibility for future journalism students in the program,” says student.
MacEwan University’s Clock Tower building. RYAN HUTCHINGS/Edmonton Edge 2024
Post-secondary education can be a very stressful time for young adults. For students in the communications studies program at MacEwan University, the process has been more difficult than advertised lately.
For MacEwan student Riley Turgeon, the amount of class options offered has been a problem.
“There are good courses that are shown in the class options, but a lot of them aren’t offered, especially fourth-year options. I feel like the variety isn’t very good,” he told Edmonton Edge.
Despite class options not being offered, they appear as available on the MacEwan student academic sheet provided to students.
“I feel like the options are misleading. You look on the MacEwan myStudentSystem and there are options there that are enticing, and you go to enroll, but there aren’t any classes actually available,” said Turgeon.
When looking toward the program’s future, Turgeon hopes to see some changes for future students.
“There’s only been a few classes over the years that I have actually been really interested in. I hope there’s more flexibility for future journalism students in the program.”
Turgeon isn’t alone in his frustration with the lack of available class options offered in the communications program.
Fellow fourth-year journalism major Lucy Gordon also feels deceived.
“When I first started the program I was really impressed by the number of options that were offered to students. It was largely because of this that I chose this program,” she said.
As Gordon’s university experience progressed, she discovered not all the options she wanted to take were available.
“I think our advisors are fantastic but I do feel like program options are falsely advertised in the sense that I think many students believe that every semester they have the option to choose between six to seven of those that are offered, when in reality it’s two to three,” she said.
Jason Symington, who is a sessional instructor in the communications studies program at MacEwan University, spoke with Edmonton Edge about what students who are unhappy with their lists of options can do.
“I do think students need to take matters into their own hands, and raise awareness for the issues they feel are important,” said Symington
Symington also went on to double down on his support for students voicing their concerns, and frustrations.
“Your voices carry weight, and need to be heard, or the powers that be will continue to do what they think works,” said Symington.
“Students have more power than they know,” he said.
While the frustration from students is apparent, unfortunately there are factors that do affect MacEwan’s decision process about the options available to students.
Dr. Rey Rosales, who is the department chair of the communications program at MacEwan, shared who is a part of the department’s decision-making on the options that are offered each semester.
“It’s a collaborative process with the chair, and the faculty members,” said Rosales.
“I also work closely with the program coordinators.”
MacEwan is also in the process of adding PR (public relations) as another major option for a Communication Studies degree. This option will be available in the Fall 2026 semester, with Colin Babiuk as the program coordinator.
Rosales then described the process of deciding which options to offer at MacEwan.
“We start with four courses, which are the core courses, and are shared between PCOM, and Journalism majors,” said Rosales.
“These must be offered, then we have one section depending on the level. We offer more 100, and 200 level courses because we have lots of students, which also means we offer multiple sections of these core courses,” he said.
Rosales added that certain courses aren’t available due to the lack of student interest in these courses.
“For students who signed up for the reporting on Canadian politics class (BCSC 424) there were only three students enrolled so we couldn’t run it,” said Rosales.
“We have to have a minimum of 15 students to run a class. Sometimes we run a class with only 10 or 11 students, but certainly not below eight students. It’s hard to run a class when there are only five or six students, especially if it’s an options class.”
According to Rosales, the communications studies program at MacEwan has grown around 25 per cent in the past five years. This has led to an increase in staff in the program.
“We used to have only two full-time journalism faculty members, and now we have five which is exciting,” he said
Rosales then went on to share his enthusiasm for the future of the program.
“We see our department growing from a modest 400 students to probably closer to 500 students in the department,” said Rosales.
“Because of the larger number of students, we will have the capacity to offer more option courses.”
With all of these changes taking place in the communications studies department, Rosales encourages students to voice their opinions on future changes they would like to see moving forward. “We’re always open to any suggestions on how we can do things better, in terms of your experience as students.”
Students can share their thoughts on any improvements or suggestions with either Dr. Rey Rosales or with academic advisor Susan Dut.
