Education students participate in observation their freshman year and progress to student teaching in their senior year.
MANHATTAN.EDU / COURTESY
Kayla Werth, Contributor
Manhattan University’s education department has drawn much attention over the course of the academic school year due to economic restraints, technical challenges and understaffing issues. The department is currently searching for a new permanent chair.
As registration for the fall 2025 semester began, education students faced more challenges than previous years when it came to scheduling. With the issue of understaffing, many of the courses are listed with a “TBD” or “to be determined” professor instructing the class. A handful of classes were also offered online to try to help with the shortage of professors.
Despite the challenges, the current professors and adjuncts have been nothing but supportive for the students. Not only have they had to teach their own classes, they are primarily running the department and creating a strong foundation for education students to prosper in. The faculty’s dedication has been both highlighted and recognized by students.
Grace Coutu, a sophomore education major with an English concentration, spoke with The Quadrangle about the professors and adjuncts who have gone above and beyond this academic school year.
“I love the adjuncts, I think getting more adjuncts would be really cool,” Coutu said.
“I want to keep seeing the support for the professors come through, they’re doing a lot.”
Alongside struggling with selection of courses for the fall semester, some students had not received their fieldwork placement until midterms. This did not give students as long to complete the required hours and therefore left them at a disadvantage, with some facing the possibility of an incomplete on that portion of their grade.
Although fieldwork is a great opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience and knowledge in the classroom, it is unpredictable which public school a student will be placed at. Public schools affiliated with the university have tightened restrictions when allowing MU students to complete fieldwork, therefore receiving placement in a timely manner is essential to many education students.
While a handful of the schools MU works with are within a reasonable distance from campus, where students can easily commute by walking or public transportation, some locations are more of a struggle to find transportation to. At times, students have had to take Ubers, at their own expense, both to and from their school placement.
The Quadrangle spoke with student Mary Abigail Caglione, a junior secondary education major, about the different means of transportation she’s used when having to commute to fieldwork.
“If you don’t have your own car and if you don’t have your own form of transportation, you’re struggling,” Caglione said. “You’re taking the subway, you’re paying for an uber… A lot of us are from different areas where we never learned how to take a subway, we don’t know the safety of everything, so it was really frustrating.”
Even though the department and faculty have had ongoing challenges, they are still continuing to put their best foot forward to help students succeed in their future career.
Katharine Wheeler, a visiting instructor, shared an email statement with The Quadrangle regarding the importance of the support the department receives from MU.
“It’s also important to note Manhattan University has been supportive of our departmental initiatives,” Wheeler wrote. “For instance, just recently, the university paid for transportation for our students to attend two significant networking events in the city. We appreciate this commitment to ensuring our students have access to valuable experiences beyond campus. In fact, under the leadership of our interim department chair Dr. Furey, I haven’t had any financial requests for student opportunities turned down. Dr. Furey works incredibly hard to cultivate and secure funding for any worthwhile opportunities that our faculty and staff identify.”
Hopeful for continuing support like this, the education department works to overcome its challenges.
The Office of the President and Chair of the Education Department declined to comment.