GLOW Aims to Change Suffolk's Summer Course Policies

What started as a class assignment has turned into an organization advocating for students. Five students in one Government 110 class were assigned to come up with a project that would bring change to the community - in their case, Suffolk's community.

The students, Juma Muhammed-Ighile, Andres Del Castillo, Audrey Aiudy, Samienta Pierre-Vil, and Kathleen Godbold, developed Growing Learning Opportunities Within (GLOW), which focuses on creating an outlet for students to pursue policy changes at Suffolk University.

Feeling that the Suffolk administration is “out of touch with all of the students,” GLOW's founders were encouraged to “recruit more members and voice the student’s disapproval of such issues.”

For their first major policy change, they brainstormed several ideas: a change in the requirements for the honors program, or reforming the blue light program. They settled on one: changing Suffolk's vague and confusing summer course policy. They felt very strong about that issue, especially because some members were directly affected by it.

The group talked to students and handed out surveys, making sure that the topic was something enough students were unhappy about in order to pursue a change. Sure enough, their results demonstrated student dissatisfaction with the summer course requirements and limitations. Student discontentment with the ambiguity of the policy was seen through the surveys and through the feedback.

The current summer course policy at Suffolk has very vague limitations, argues GLOW. There are also different policies for students enrolled at the College of Arts and Sciences and those in the Sawyer Business School.

The policy varies depending on major, place of residence, credits, and courses offered during the summer. Finances cannot be a determining factor in the eligibility for summer courses. Also, if summer courses are not filled up, they are removed from the curriculum. If a class is removed, GLOW feels that students should be able to take those classes elsewhere.

”We are looking for clarity and not such general statements,” said Del Castillo. Making such policies student-friendly is just the beginning. GLOW hopes their work will enhance policy for years to come.

“We don’t want to just establish this group,” said Aiudy, “We want to make this an accessible resource over time for all students.”

GLOW's work will continue, even after their GOV110 class is over this semester.

“When the class ends we plan establish [GLOW] as a group on campus” said the group in a statement. They are currently writing up legislation to be made into an official campus organization. 

Their main goal is to keep Suffolk competitive with other major Boston schools, in regards to programs like summer courses.  They have modeled some of their reformed policies after some of the policies from other local schools.

“We want to make sure [the administration] knows we are not telling them what to do” said Del Castillo, assuring that the group's aims are to improve the university.

"GLOW is an organization that wants to make Suffolk the best university it can be,” said Pierre-Vil.