When students arrived for their first Introduction to Political Theory class this semester, they didn’t go over the syllabus. Instead, they started discussing theories, but not political ones.
What the students were theorizing about was what had happened to their no-show instructor.
Vaughn Huckfeldt, an assistant professor in the languages, linguistics, and philosophy department, was unaware that he was still listed to teach the course, which was supposed to have been canceled in October.
‘Somebody obviously dropped the ball,’ said junior Jordan Weber, one of the students enlisted in the class.
Introduction to Political Theory is usually taught several times during the year by the political science department and is one of five required graduation courses for political science majors. This semester was the first it was supposed to be offered through the philosophy faculty.
‘Back in January (2009) or so, the philosophy department approached us and they wanted to set up a counterpart in philosophy and cross-list the course,’ said Bill Richardson, political science chair.
However, when the philosophy department decided against offering the course this semester, the Webadvisor listing was only deleted under the philosophy department’s name and the political science department’s course remained open to enrollment.
‘The professor never canceled it,’ Richardson said. ‘He apparently did not look at his Webadvisor to see that that class was listed and it was full. A number of us should have caught it and it fell through the cracks. It will not be cross-listed again.’
Students who did enroll in the course were e-mailed about the error about an hour after the first class, according to senior Nick Severson.
For Severson, replacing the class the same day wasn’t difficult, and he didn’t need the credit to graduate.
But for other students, finding a class that wasn’t waitlisted didn’t happen.
‘It was definitely an inconvenience to scramble at the beginning of classes,’ said Weber, who had signed up for the course three months ago.
Weber eventually joined another class with an instructor’s permission, but had already missed the first day.
Weber said that while Huckfeldt admitted it was the school’s fault, he was disappointed another instructor couldn’t have been found.
‘There wasn’t a lack of people signed up for it,’ he said.
Richardson said the political science department will offer the course
online this summer, and offer both a classroom and online course in the fall.
‘We’re trying to make sure that nobody is caught short on graduation or requirements,’ Richardson said.
Academic Advising said seven to 10 students from the class came in for rescheduling help after Huckfeldt’s e-mail.
Steve Ward, Academic Advising interim director, said canceling courses after the semester’s start is ‘definitely rare.’
Susan Wolfe, chair of the languages, linguistics and philosophy department, said in an e-mail that after the error was found, she met with Huckfeldt, Ward and Richardson to resolve the situation.
Wolfe also stated in the e-mail that the department regretted the inconvenience to students and that she would ‘personally review future cross-listings.’
Reach reporter Josie Kerk at Josephine.Kerk@usd.edu.
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