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The communications department at Antelope Valley College will no longer be offering the major to students as the department officially closes its doors.
“Anyone who was in the program prior to this winter quarter will be able to finish,” said Randy Schultz, the interim dean of the CSU Bakersfield Antelope Valley campus. ”The communications department is reviewing everyone’s transcripts and developing a program that they can follow in order to graduate from the AV campus.”
The program will no longer be offered, but classes will continue to be offered to those who were enrolled before the winter quarter before the program will officially close.
The closure is ultimately due to the small class size numbers.
“It is difficult to keep a program open over at the AV campus when there are too few majors to sustain it,” said Schultz. “We have a total of 15 communications majors on our campus at this time. Some are juniors and some seniors.”
He said a full program should consist of 40 to 50 students.
“To confirm, the Comm. students who are enrolled [before the winter quarter] they will finish their BA in Communications,” said Judith Pratt, chair of the communications department.
Other majors shouldn’t fear.      “The other programs at the Antelope Valley campus are healthy and are continuing,” said Schultz.
However, communications majors are feeling left out in the cold.
“I got an email on Dec. 10th of last year, 2015, and it said that because I was admitted to CSUB, like this is my first quarter so it said that I was admitted to the school by error and they are fazing out the communications program,” said communications major Marie Aguirre, 24.
“He [Schultz] said that if you are enrolled in a program, then you don’t really have much to worry about. They will make accommodations for you to graduate and finish your major; except for me because it is my first quarter here, so I was singled out that I can’t finish there,” said Aguirre.
She was the only one in that small class consisting of five to six people that will not be continuing on with the program at the AV campus.
“They advised me to switch majors and in order for me to switch majors at this campus I still need a lot of prerequisites. It would take me at least a year to get back to where I am right now in a different major,” said Aguirre.
At this point, Aguirre is unsure of what her future holds as she looks to other schools but she is determined to continue forward.