A typical college experience usually comes with its fair share of hardships, memories, and life-long lessons. Sometimes it feels like a staircase leading to an adventure for success and personal fulfillment. Accordingly, adequate preparation is always crucial and should be settled and implemented from the very start. For that matter, Al Akhawayn University has dedicated time and resources, introducing both the First-Year Experience Program and the Center for Learning Excellence to assist and mentor students – especially Freshmen and Sophomores- to start off on the right track, by providing all the information and tools they might need to smoothly integrate university life.
However, and because of the COVID-19’s unprecedented Outbreak, this upcoming generation of sophomores, Fall 2019’s cohort, were forced to adapt themselves in an unheard of situation, while still facing the struggles that come with being a Freshman in a Liberal Art system.
The future of sophomore students amidst the COVID-19 pandemic
For many freshmen, the Spring semester felt like a second chance to find their way on campus as they became more and more familiar with clubs, older students, and campus facilities. In the Fall 2019 semester, the First-Year Experience seminar started tackling more in-depth and practical subjects such as exchange opportunities and budget management. Those weekly meetings consistently encouraged constructive questions and interactions with professors in charge. This valuable primary source of information for any Freshman student became extremely limited due to the asynchronous method of online teaching. Consequently, Freshmen students found themselves vacillating between two opposite states. They have more insight and experience compared to newcomers, but still not in the position to take crucial academic decisions such as going on exchanges, mandatory internships, capstone, etc. as a Junior or a Senior student would do.
Sophomore students are being deprived of the opportunity to mature within the university. In the sense that, it’s usually after the first year that they get used to university life, by knowing themselves and each other a bit better.
Mariame Maouhoub, First-Year Experience Student Admin
What about the new majors added recently?
Generally, and after a completed first year / common core for most majors, Sophomores start choosing their minor courses, a key academic step that is mainly based on their personal preferences, along with a study of the program sheets, the different opportunities offered, and the syllabuses of courses.
However, Fall 2019’s Sophomores did not get the opportunity to go through this phase. During Spring 2020, AUI students were astonished to notice the development of around 7 new majors in the School of Science and Engineering:
- Big Data Analysis
- Artificial intelligence
- Cyber-physical systems
- Cloud and Mobile Software engineering
- Computer systems
- Renewable energies
In addition, new majors in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences were developed as well:
- Environmental Studies & Sustainability
- Spatial Planning, & Management
A prompt decision that was very snappily taken in less than one academic year. One could argue that these non-accredited majors represent a drastic and momentaneous evolvement that students were absolutely not informed about. No official email was sent from any of the Schools and executives, no changes were added to the AUI catalog 2019-2021, or to any of the program sheets. Moreover, no proper advertising was done in advance for this upcoming change, so that AUIers - especially new ones – would get the chance to adapt their future academic plans: choosing minors or changing majors.
It is truly interesting that AUI opts to strengthen its educational undergraduate core by adding new majors. Though, they mustn’t disregard the university’s motto: “Excellence & Identity” because excellence only comes when we balance quality with quantity
Mohamed Akiour, a Sophomore student at AUI
Exchange semesters and opportunities in light of the current circumstances
Exchange opportunities offer broad-based benefits and outcomes for students keen to embark on this international adventure. To illustrate, most of AUI’s university partnerships attract incoming students which make students eager to live that exciting experience.
Regrettably, and following the latest SGA announcement, the three weeks calendar shift might impact spring 2021’s exchange opportunities. These decisions could lead to an overwhelming number of applications since students who were intending to go on exchange during fall 2020 will apply at the same time with those who were intending to go during the following semester. Consequently, Sophomore, the future Juniors, will be “disadvantaged” since the first criterion of selection for exchange opportunities is the number of credits. As a result, many students are stressed and facing uncertain situations that could only be solved with an official email from AUI executives.
I think that the postponement of exchanges for current juniors or sophomores will lead to predictable problems in the next year. Our cohort will be delayed, and this will continue to happen if immediate solutions are not found.
Chifaa Bouzid, Sophomore student at AUI
To conclude, transparency, mindfulness of students’ situations, in addition to open communication with different groups of the AUI community, are the keen solutions that should be implemented now more than ever before. Only that will appease all student’s frustration regarding the uncertainties faced and will help Sophomores go through the smooth college transition that they were promised to experience. The cohort of fall 2019 faced so many challenges but showed a tremendous effort to be more flexible and adapt to those new circumstances.
