Game programming student Deanna Sowa
Game programming students at Humber who petitioned the school with concerns about their faculty last fall now say that they’re seeing improvements in their classes.
The students had prepared and signed a petition mid-November of 2013, which listed concerns about instructor absenteeism and unreturned assignments. In the petition, the students had named more than half of their professors.
Deanna Sowa, 19, who signed the petition said the school seems to have listened to their concerns.
“This semester so far has been going good. I have no complaints. I am satisfied we did have a meeting and we were able to talk about our issues,” said Sowa.
In November, Program Coordinator Rob Robeson said the School of Media Studies and Information Technology would take action, possibly going as far as not inviting some of the part-time faculty back. The students met with the dean and associate dean of the School of Media Studies and Information Technology and their program coordinator on January 10. There, they had a chance to voice their concerns and find a way forward.
The students were asked to review the curriculum in the courses they were having issues with, so that they can be compensated for materials they might have missed.
Josh O’Donell, 24, is one of the game programming students who helped put the petition together. He said he is looking to see what actions will be taken now that they met with all the parties involved.
“I think there was a lot of stuff that had to be tackled and a lot will be involved in that process, ” said O’Donell. “We can only wait and see what the outcome might be.”
O’Donell added that their intention was to not hamper the livelihood of the professors but to make them accountable for high standard of education.
The petition detailed what the students described as the lack of structure in the professors’ lectures and the absenteeism of one professor who they say in the petition spent 50 hours playing video games in two weeks. The petition also said that though the professor was entitled to free time, the professor was yet to return their midterm projects which wasn’t done because of “long downloading time,” according to the petition.
Last fall, Robeson said it was not the first time there were complaints about the program but they would continue to look into each complaint as it arose.
