Following the confidential message, three Zoom town halls were hosted on Oct. 18, 19 and 27. 

Elementary education 3-6 junior Anna Robertson has felt frustrated with how the College of Education communicated and handled students continuing with the five-year plan. Robertson and her classmates decided to all attend the Oct. 19 meeting in search of clarity, hoping that showing power in numbers may be more effective.

College of Education Dean Jerlando F. L. Jackson sent an email reminding students of the Oct. 27 town hall meeting and said he would be attending as well.

“I also hope you know, students, how much we appreciate that you feel empowered to voice your opinions,” Jackson wrote in the email. “We want you to do so. This is your college, your education. You should feel like you can ask questions and receive answers.”

All three town halls showed the same presentation, Robertson said. 

“They kept encouraging us to come, but it just got so redundant and exhausting,” Robertson said. “(Jackson) keeps saying, ‘We appreciate you guys speaking up, and we’re really happy that you guys feel you can do that.’ But they’re not listening, so it just feels pointless.”

Also on Oct. 31, Robertson sent an email to Jackson, former Provost Teresa K. Woodruff and other faculty members on behalf of the elementary education class of 2024. Along with 27 additional student signatures, the email detailed how the switch negatively affected juniors.

Robertson did not receive a response until one week later on Nov. 8 at 1:05 a.m.

“A small task force is working on solutions and a response,” Jackson wrote in the email.

Unprofessional and disrespectful — Robertson described the response.

“There was no punctuation in the email,” Robertson said. “The response was a single sentence that did not acknowledge the frustration of the situation in any way."

Almost two months after the first Oct. 12 confidential message, MSU College of Education officially announced the five to four-year transition on Dec. 12.

Ranging from year to year, each student's reaction varied greatly; many education students were furious while others were excited about the change. 

Seniors/fifth-years

One month after the initial confidential message announcement was sent to education students, MSU still did not publicly announce this change.

“They say these things and it’s secretive almost,” English secondary education senior Allison Simpson said. “Like why are we trying to hide it?”

English secondary education senior Sydney McCastle was in shock after hearing about the transition, especially after how intense her senior year has been with the current five-year program. McCastle also felt being a part of the five-year program will make her a better educator.

Physical science secondary education senior Nadia Caldwell switched to physical science at the beginning of junior year, which put her one year behind in her major and the opportunity to switch to the four-year program. However, Caldwell decided to stick with the original five-year program to graduate from MSU in 2024.

English secondary education senior Rebecca Hallman feels stuck needing to live with her parents, even with the stipend.

“When you think about graduation next spring, and all of your friends who aren’t education majors are going out and getting jobs and going on being able to live their life and have their own apartment,” Hallman said. “It’s almost feeling disadvantaged in more of a social sense. … It feels like I will just kind of be stuck in senior year 2.0.”

Juniors

Elementary education and special education freshmen, sophomores and juniors remaining in the five-year model received a confidential message detailing course substitutions and new course sections on Oct. 31— which Roberston called one of the few pieces of detailed information.

Secondary education junior Jack Debona said he emailed Associate Director of Teaching Preparation Kyle Greenwalt with his questions and concerns. He said Greenwalt then pitched an in-person meeting for secondary education juniors on Nov. 17 in response to them claiming that past town halls focused on primary education students instead of secondary education students.

“I asked quite a few questions, and it was kind of at that point that I realized not a whole lot was going to be done for the case of the juniors,” Debona said. “We all just kind of swallowed that pill at this point that we are going to have to be certified to teach at the same time as the class one year younger than us … while they had to pay two less semesters of tuition and spend one full year less of their own time.”

Previous town hall meetings entailed the importance of a previously required course for primary education students: HDFS 424. This six-credit course requires students five days a week and four hours each day at the MSU child development laboratories.

In Robertson’s email to Jackson and Woodruff, she said although it's a beneficial course, HDFS 424 should no longer be a requirement with its immense stress and difficulty.

“It is almost like a student teaching experience, but you do no teaching,” Robertson said. “It is glorified babysitting. … They will ask us to clean out the fridge, like do janitorial duties.”

Although HDFS 424 was removed from the new four-year program, each town hall meeting had the same slides explaining why the College of Education believed the course was crucial for primary education students. However, the College of Education agreed that juniors required to take HDFS 424 would not need to complete janitorial obligations, Robertson said. 

“We kind of think that a reason of that is they have been understaffed and … it really does feel like they are just forcing us to do that,” Robertson said. “And that’s the way that it feels like you’re treated there, you feel like unpaid labor. 

HDFS 424 is not a requirement for the 3-6 grade band, so Robertson switched from PK-3 to 3-6 solely to avoid taking the course.

College of Education juniors received an email from Jackson and Interim Provost Designee Thomas D. Jeitschko on Nov. 21. The email detailed four curricula “modifications” for juniors, but Robertson said the options were invalid, something they already knew or Robertson came up with in her email.

“All of the things in that email were loopholes basically that we found because they weren’t giving us any solutions and then they presented them to us as if they came up with them,” Robertson said.

Sophomores

English secondary education sophomore Olivia Twa was confused why the College of Education announced the change without reaching out to students beforehand for feedback or comments. Twa decided to stay with the four-year program as it was cheaper and would work for her in the long run.

Elementary education 3-6 sophomore Sarah Ciaglia also decided to switch to the four-year program, as there were few classes she took that wouldn't count towards credit. Ciaglia will still graduate in 2025, needing more placement hours and plans to student-teach in Chicago.

Freshmen

K-6 secondary education freshman Jessica Steller felt relief when reading the confidential message but understands that upperclassmen have taken the back end of this transition. Steller’s parents help pay for her tuition, but they weren’t certain how much they could help financially during her fifth year.

“It’s very, very relieving knowing that I only have to focus on saving up money for four years of college instead of five,” Steller said.