Professor Meera Adya’s forensic psychology course, available in the spring at Syracuse University, calls for 30 enrolled students.

However, even before Adya started roll call on the first day of classes on Tuesday, Jan. 16, the course’s waitlist had ballooned to more than triple the amount of students it could hold.

‘I started getting contacted by students on Oct. 16 when I got the first e-mail,’ she said. ‘In total, 100 to 101 students contacted me for this class.’

No. 82 on the course’s waitlist is senior Giovanni Lark, a psychology major who hoped to take Adya’s course this semester in order to complete a minor in forensic psychology. However, Lark’s hopes were merely that, as he was eventually denied entry into Adya’s class like every other student that remained stuck on the waitlist.

While Adya cites MySlice lags and Lark’s position on her waitlist as the reasons for his shortcomings, Lark said he believes his situation is different from other waitlisted students, claiming the way administration handled his affair as racist.

‘I don’t think (Adya) is racist. It was the situation,’ he said. ‘It’s racism how the faculty and professors dealt with my situation. I thought to myself, ‘If I had been White and had rich parents giving money to SU, they would have put me in the class. I wouldn’t have to go through the chain of command.”

The first week

During the first week of classes, Adya allowed waitlisted students that showed up to class to stay for the period, though she informed them there was a slim chance they would be enrolled because of the lengthy waitlist. Lark said he attended class during the first week and obtained the course’s syllabus. At this time, Lark said Adya told him, ‘Keep coming in and I’ll see if I can get you in.’

By Friday, Lark said Adya sent him an e-mail stating the class was full, which he called ‘shocking.’

‘She made it seem like I was going to get in the class,’ said Lark, who often noticed up to 12 open seats in Adya’s classroom during the course’s first week.

Adya said she had to filter out waitlisted students from the classroom because she wanted to focus on enrolled students. To her, classroom dynamic is important and she needed everyone to be included in open discussions without distractions, she said. Additionally, roles for the course, including oral arguments and mock trial and debate teams, were filled. It was time to get started.

‘I had started asking students not to stay with the class, and asked Mr. Lark to leave the class,’ Adya said. ‘I did everything consistently, and treated (waitlisted students) all the same.’

However, this is not to say some waitlisted students did not enroll in the course. If a spot opened up, Adya would go to her waitlist and ask the psychology department to give permission to the next student on her waitlist of about 100 students.

‘I would say at the maximum, the shuffle I have seen is 10 to 12 people,’ Adya said, as of Feb. 13.

After being told by e-mail that he could not enroll in the course, Lark said he visited Jerome Dusek, a psychology professor, during his office hours to describe to Dusek his efforts to enroll in the course in order to complete his forensic psychology minor.

According to Lark, Dusek told him he did not need to take the course in order to graduate, but rather needed it only to complete the minor. Lark admits Dusek’s statement is factually true, but said it didn’t make sense to graduate without the minor in the field he wanted to enter.

At this point, Lark said Dusek raised his voice when he told Lark there was no other class he could take, at which point Lark told Dusek not to raise his tone.

‘I was meeting with a professor,’ said Lark, referring to Dusek. ‘I shouldn’t have to tell him not to raise his voice at me.’

Dusek could not be reached for comment.

From here, Lark tried to set up a meeting with Barbara Fiese, chair of the psychology department. Lark said her secretary, who could not be reached for comment, told him, ‘Well, the dean is too busy to help you with your problem.’

Finally, Lark met with David Potter, associate dean of Student Services of the College of Arts and Sciences. Lark said the meeting proved to be unproductive and he said he knew it would be when Potter said to Lark, ‘Oh, you’re Giovanni,’ at the meeting’s beginning.

Potter declined to comment on any statements Lark made on his behalf. He also would not confirm whether he had ever met with Lark during his office hours.

‘A student is free to say whatever he or she wants,’ Potter said. ‘Let the public record be what it is.’

The second week

The following week, on Thursday, Jan. 25, Lark met with Associate Provost Sandra Hurd. Together, they logged onto MySlice and found there were two openings and no waitlist for Adya’s course. Lark said Hurd told him to fill out the proper paperwork from Arts and Sciences and to go to the class.

Hurd confirmed that she did meet with Lark, but would not comment on what they discussed.

Lark said he acted on Hurd’s request and went to class, even though this was six days after he received the e-mail from Adya that said the course was filled. Before the class commenced, Adya said she asked Lark to join her outside of the classroom and in the hallway after Lark refused to leave.

In the hallway, Lark said Adya told him she could not understand what he was doing in her classroom and that she felt ‘uncomfortable with his presence in the class.’

‘I don’t know why you’re here because you’re not registered,’ Lark said Adya had told him, adding she was going to call security if he didn’t leave.

Adya denies she ever said she was uncomfortable with Lark’s presence, but said she did ask him out into the hallway because she did not want to tell him to leave in front of the class. Adya also said she told Lark in the hallway she would call someone if he did not leave.

‘He left and was obviously upset,’ she said. ‘I did not raise my voice. There were no people in the hallway – they would have seen that.’

MySlice

At press time, performing a class search on Adya’s forensic psychology course will still yield two openings and no waitlist, with instructor permission required to enroll.

The reason for the openings is due to multiple lags in the MySlice system, Adya said. Once Adya finds an opening in her course, she must ask the psychology department to give enrollment permission to the next student on her waitlist.

Then, the student must act on it.

‘Sometimes it looks like there are spots available,’ she said. ‘Even in the beginning, there were permissions that students hadn’t used yet. When students check MySlice, they may not be seeing the most up to date information.’

For example, if a student is granted permission to enroll in a course but never acts on that permission, it will appear like there are openings in the course, according to MySlice, when really the course is full, Adya said.

Lark said Adya at one time tried explaining to him how MySlice can be wrong. However, for as long as he has been at SU, Lark said he could not think of a single time MySlice had been wrong.

Anthony Wells, a service provider for the SU Registrar’s Office, said MySlice is a system that ‘works’ and that he is not familiar with any type of waitlist outside of the one offered on MySlice.

‘It’s not a question of the most effective method, it’s the only method,’ said Wells, on how he had not heard of students individually contacting professors before enrolling in a class and bypassing MySlice’s waitlist.

Additionally, the SU Registrar’s Office has nothing to do with granting students the permission to enroll in a class, Wells said. Instead, the individual departments are responsible for any and all time it takes for the students to act on the permission to enroll by the departments.

The present day

At this time, Lark is not enrolled in the forensic psychology course. Instead, he is undertaking an independent study in order to fulfill requirements for the minor.

Even so, Lark said the whole situation has left him irritated.

‘I’m frustrated. I know when to submit and keep my mouth shut.’ He said. ‘This independent study is BS – it’s not really independent study.’

In an independent study, Lark said he would meet with a professor who would ask him what research he would like to investigate. He would go out and do the research, and then present his findings. However, Lark said his independent study solely consists of him reading from the course’s textbook and then taking an exam provided by Fiese in the psychology department.

Additionally, with the independent study, Lark said Arts and Sciences is requesting he fill out a course overload petition since at 22 credits, he is taking too many credits for a single semester.

When asked whether he’d consider finishing up his minor in the fall or even next spring with Adya’s course, Lark said he isn’t interested.

‘I can’t afford to do that. I’ve done my dues,’ he said. ‘I’ve been so busy with school and various organizations and working two jobs. It’s been a struggle.’

Published on February 27, 2007 at 12:00 pm