Cal Poly Psychology Department Suspends Minor

The Cal Poly psychology Department has announced that the psychology minor has been suspended until further notice. The decision comes after the department continues to see higher impacted classes and not enough resources to accommodate for it. 

In the age of COVID-19 where in-person classes are still a health risk, this is especially problematic, according to the Head of the Psychology Department Jennifer Jipson. 

“During a time at which we’re moving back into the classroom, we’re still operating under the constraints and concerns of a health pandemic, and our responsibility is safety. We won’t be increasing course counts because we wanna keep classroom density down,” Jipson said. 

Jipson also said that she hopes that the suspension of the minor will be temporary and that students will be able to declare it again soon. However, it is impossible to know when exactly that will be. 

The department currently has almost 500 students enrolled in its major and 400 in its minor, as well as an ongoing stream of requests from current students to change their major to psychology. Out of responsibility to ensure that these students are able to enroll in the classes they need to be able to complete their majors and minors, Jipson said that minor applications needed to be suspended to make more room in psychology courses. Looking ahead, however, Jipson hopes that all students who want to take the minor are able to do so. 

“The goal for the Psychology Department is to somehow increase our capacity to serve all of the Cal Poly students who are interested in studying psychology,” Jipson said. 

The department holds that students who will have completed minor requirements by Fall Quarter of 2021 can still submit their minor applications. Students who have already declared a psychology minor can also proceed with it. 

Some students, like child development junior Amaya Lopez who completed part of the minor requirements but failed to declare it in time, will not be able to officially graduate with a minor in psychology. 

“Some classes did kinda go to waste. They were interesting classes, thankfully, but they won’t really count for much,” Lopez said. 

Though the news is disappointing for many, Jipson said that students can still complete the requirements for a minor even if they don’t officially declare it, as psychology courses are still open to all students. She also said that she encourages students to write about this on their resumes, explaining that they completed the requirements even though the minor was temporarily suspended.

“Take psychology classes, and you’re gonna get more attention in your cover letters for jobs and graduate applications by showing that your desire to do so was intrinsically motivated even in the absence of a formal minor,” Jipson said.

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