Course Offerings

In LORIS, after making sure you have selected the "Fall 2018" or "Winter 2019" term, select:

• student services
• student records
• display student program

The program displayed is pending approval until late May or early June, when your program progression or program change will be reviewed.

Communication Studies Course Limit

Communication Studies majors are allowed to register for no more than 3.0 Communication Studies (CS)  credits (six courses) over fall and winter terms until July 6 at 4 p.m., so that all students can have courses and fulfill program requirements. On July 6 after 4 p.m., students may register for open CS core courses.

400-Level Restrictions

Each Year 4 Communication Studies major is allowed to register in only one section of CS400 (senior seminar) until July 6 at 4 p.m. (multiple sections will be removed). On July 6 after 4 p.m., Year 4 majors can register for whatever CS400 spaces are left open.

Each Year 4 Communication Studies major is encouraged to register in only one section of CS411, CS412, CS413, CS414, CS415, CS416. The department has created sufficient spaces for all students to have one section. Abuse of this guideline, so that some students cannot fulfill graduation requirements, may lead to the department restricting each student to one section only.

Students following the programs requiring one of CS401 or CS402 or CS403 or CS405 may use one of CS411, CS412, CS413, CS414, CS415, CS416 and KS400.

Students joining the program in their senior years should expect to take longer to complete requirements.

Restrictions for Non-Communication Studies Majors

CS100 and CS101:

• Only Faculty of Arts students (includes Communication Studies majors) will be able to register for CS100 and CS101 until July 2. Other students will be able to register for CS100 and CS101 beginning July 3.
• A number of spaces in all sections of CS100 and CS101 will be reserved for Communication Studies majors.

• beginning July 15 non-majors may register for classes that are not full.
• 400-level courses: These courses remain restricted to Year 4 honours Communication Studies majors always.

Major Restrictions by Other Programs

The date that filters (such as field of study or major restrictions) may be removed for students who are not registered in an honours program of that discipline may vary by department.

Restrictions are deliberately placed (you should not expect to be given exceptions) by the various departments/ programs, and varies from one to another. Some do not restrict any courses, some restrict some courses, and some restrict all courses.

To check whether a course has a restriction, please see the dynamic class schedule, which also lists restrictions on courses and when they would be lifted.

• 200-level reserved seating: Approximately 2/3 of spaces in all 200-level courses will be reserved for Year 2 majors. The remaining spaces are reserved for students in other years of study.
• 300-level reserved seating: Approximately 2/3 of spaces in all 300-level courses, excepting CS353 online, will be reserved for Year 3 majors. The remaining spaces are reserved for students in other years of study.  There will be no reserve on CS353 online.
• 400-level courses: These courses remain restricted to Year 4 honours Communication Studies majors always.

Prerequisite overrides are allowed only if you have taken a course elsewhere equivalent to the prerequisite course. If you feel this applies to you, please send an email to csaadv@wlu.ca with relevant details. Please include your student ID number.

Wait lists will be available only for certain courses. We are unable to add wait listing to most courses because wait listing conflicts with reserved seating.

• Spring: Wait listing is available for all Communication Studies courses.
• Fall/Winter: Wait listing is available for CS353 online and 400-level courses only.

To look up your position on the wait-list, in LORIS, select "Student Services," "Registration," and "Student Detail Schedule." Once space in the wait-listed course is available for you, an email notification will be sent to your MyLaurier email address. You have 24 hours to register for the course in LORIS before your name is removed from the wait list, and you lose the option to register.

• Procedure: If an instructor suspects a case of academic and/or research misconduct, he/she will initiate the Academic Misconduct Investigation and Adjudication Process as stated in University Policy 12.2.II.B.
• Important: Regardless of the specific penalty levied, the names of all students engaged in academic misconduct will be reported to the department, the Dean of Arts office, and the University’s central registry.

There are only two required courses in first year: CS100 and CS101. All other courses are to be chosen based on your own interests. The first year is an introductory year and you should select courses from numerous different disciplines. You will not start to specialize in Communication Studies classes until your third and fourth year.

We do not have a yearly, scheduled curriculum. You are required to take CS203 and CS235 in your second year. Successful completion of both courses is required for third-year courses.

You also have to complete CS400 and one other 400-level, advanced topic non-seminar Communication Studies (CS) class. Beyond this there are no specific courses that you are required to take in a given year.

However, in Year 3, you may wish to consider the 400-level courses you are interested in, and ensure you take any required prerequisites.

It is our department policy not to override class limits. If a class with tutorials is full your only option is to check through LORIS for a space to become available. During the regular fall/winter terms, only 400-level courses have wait lists (see above). Wait lists are not available for other courses in order to maintain our course reservation system that ensures more equitable access to 200- and 300-level courses for students in Years 2 and 3.

No, prerequisites are established to promote student success in more advanced courses. If you do not have the prerequisite this most likely means that you have most likely not been adequately prepared for the rigours of the course in question.

The Communication Studies department offers courses during the fall and winter terms based upon a budget of 3 credits per major in the program. This budget is what is allocated to the department from the Faculty of Arts. In order to ensure an equitable distribution of courses among all majors in our program, we expect you to stay within that budget. At a later date, once everyone has had a reasonable opportunity to choose their courses and schedule their classes, the 3 credit cap will be lifted and majors may select additional courses subject to availability. Until that time, if you exceed the budget, we will remove you from any and all courses above 3 credits and you can expect it to be the most popular (including 400-level seminar) courses to be removed first.

With the exception of CS203, CS235, and 400-level courses, senior courses have spaces reserved by year status. To ensure students of all years have reasonable access to courses, 60% of spaces in 200-level courses will be reserved for Year 2 students and 60% of spaces in 300-level courses will be reserved for Year 3 students. These reservations will be waived later in the summer. Finally, Year 4 students restricted to one registration in CS400 until later in the summer (date to be announced each year).

Currently to enter into the Communication Studies program you will need to have completed CS100 and CS101 with a C+ in each course, a major GPA of 6.0, and an overall GPA of 5.0. The overall GPA includes every course you have ever taken at Laurier. The major GPA includes Communication Studies (CS) core and elective courses. For students entering their second year, your major GPA typically includes only CS100 and CS101. Provided you have the required GPAs, you can declare yourself as a Communication Studies major through LORIS. Alternatively, you can fill out a program selection form available from Enrolment Services.

Note: If you have repeated either CS100 or CS101 and achieved less than a C+ in the second instance, you will not be able to continue in the program.

No. If you are already enrolled at Wilfrid Laurier University and did not enter as a Communication Studies major, then you must first enrol in and successfully complete CS100 and CS101 meeting all progression requirements.

If you do not meet either of the GPA requirements you can retake a course to try and fulfill the requirements. You could also pursue Communication Studies as a minor, rather than as a major. Consult your faculty advisors to better understand and discuss your options.

Note: You may only retake a course once and the second mark received will be what is counted, whether lower or higher than the first.

That depends upon what you have already completed towards the program requirements. The Communication Studies program is designed to be completed in four consecutive years of study. If you are changing your program or returning to the program, you may need more than four academic years in total to complete your new requirements.

During the fall and winter terms, all courses offered by the Communications Studies department have majors-only restrictions. At least half of the spaces in CS100 and CS101 are reserved for majors only. Senior courses in Communication Studies are restricted to majors only until later in the year. The dates when the major restrictions will be removed will be posted in the dynamic class schedule in LORIS.

The Management Option is handled by the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics; consult a Business department academic advisor.

Yes. These are called Letter of Permission courses. The applicable forms and instructions are available from Enrolment Services. When selecting courses at another institution, be sure that they do not overlap with courses you have already taken at Laurier. It is essential that you receive the necessary permissions from your academic advisor and Enrolment Services before you start your course. The Communication Studies department has a residency requirement that limits Communication Studies majors to no more than 1.5 credits in CS equivalents be taken on Letter of Permission.

It is important to note that because this is a university and not a college program, we do not train you for practice in a specific field. It is a misconception to think that an undergraduate student in history becomes an historian, that a biology student becomes a biologist or that a communication studies student gets employment in the media industry. A university degree gives you a broad set of critical and analytic skills that can be applied in any area of employment. On the job market you will be competing with others who have degrees in history, English, biology, kinesiology, business, geography and many other fields. The type of job you get has more to do with how you market yourself than the subject of your degree. The Laurier Career Centre is a terrific resource for those thinking about work after graduation.

Yes, you can double count courses that appear in the requirements of your Communication Studies degree and another major, minor or option; however, you still only receive 0.5 credit for the course (or 1.0 credit if it was a full-year course).