Are students and the University
ever on a different page where students feel neglected? Do I ever sit back and
say “c’mon University. That isn’t helping me one bit.”? It seems to me the
question being asked is, “Is the University completely selfless or always fair
in allocating resources back to the student?” There are a number of complaints
where I feel the University structures itself in a way that hurts the students.
The big one for me is registering
for classes. I have wanted to take a number of upper level finance classes on
investing where I was prohibited from registering because I was in a different
major and had to wait until a certain date or maybe I needed to have taken
other fin classes which I would have had to go through a similar process. The university does not always provide you
with the classes you want to take. That is pretty unfortunate to go to school
to be taught more about things you are passionate about, only to have to wait
and be denied. To restructure this you
would have to open it up to all students or possibly move around or hire more
professors who will teach that subject.
There are other times when you feel
as though teachers just aren’t there to teach. They have a different agenda
doing research and improving their credibility. I have run into a number of
teachers like this and I rarely learn much (partially my own fault too). It makes
you wonder if professors are simply hired for their projects being researched.
We have discussed this idea in class periodically throughout the year so I will
not hit the subject too hard but it is a shame when you pay money to a
university to have people teach you and then they hire people who cannot seem
to teach. I guess there is an attempt to monitor everything through ISIS forms
but maybe there is a different way to check faculty rather than reviewing their
researched and published works. (Don’t get me wrong, I have also had a number
of really strong teachers who encourage my thinking).
I think that, in general, tuition costs
are quite ridiculous. There are a number of fees and services that we pay for
that factor nothing into our time in college.
I know there are some ways to get back some of those fees, but still we
pay a number of costs that we have no use or overpay for. I like to reference
my time in the dorms where once you realize how much you pay per meal you feel
like you should probably eat more. After all you are paying for a steak dinner every
time you swipe your card and if you don’t use all your meals in a week it is
like handing the University your money. I don’t know exactly how the money is
divided up but it seems like an expensive bowl of cereal, bagel, and piece of
fruit. You may try to privatize or price meals and selections rather than give
an overall encompassing price. This may be not too feasible because of the
numbers and time constraints but it is a start. I have seen smaller
universities do it.
Now I don’t want to completely bash
the University. They provide services that are valuable that I have neglected myself.
I probably wouldn’t complain if I took advantage of everything the University
had to offer. There is an incredible amount of resources that the University
offers besides its reputation and the degree.
The purpose of this prompt was to
show that people are fighting for funding and support that comes at the cost of
efficiency that may help the fund administrators agendas.
Let's take on the issue of whether faculty were hired for their research and their (undergraduate) teaching is just a sidebar. I believe that's definitely been true historically. But the funding was quite different when I started here in 1980. Then tuition was only a few hundred dollars. The bulk of the cost was paid out of tax dollars. That part clearly has changed, but the emphasis on where faculty put in their time probably hasn't. So on that one I agree with you.
ReplyDeleteI'm less sure about the meal plan stuff in the dorms. I suspect I wouldn't have fun going out with you for a steak dinner, if you're equating that with the dorm food.
I agree with you that I would have loved to take some interesting classes to broaden my horizon, however they have started to restrict classes to majors only. Furthermore there is no soultion for this in m opinion due to the fact that funding is an issue and these are the consequence. Money runs the major of our lives and what we choose to do and that is the same for the university.
DeleteThat gave me a good chuckle. I was referring and exaggerating the price of dorm food saying it was like buying a steak dinner
DeleteOne of the issues at play here, at least for business, is that they charge a higher tuition for these courses. If students would be willing to pay more for these classes on a per/class basis, perhaps the University would allow non-majors to take the classes. At the same time, the College of Business has a really good reputation that may make them try to insulate themselves from the rest of the University to increase their prestige or make it easier to plan their course schedules. At the same time, I know some other majors have this criterion, such as Communications, which makes it difficult for even minors to get into courses they want. That doesn’t make a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in terms of food prices, they tend to be pricey for what you are getting. Two things compound that: the mandatory nature of most meal plans and the price compared to buying food out (or even eating in a fraternity/ sorority ~ $6/meal for members). Many students are required to buy at least a 10meals/week plan if they live in a dorm, regardless of whether they will use it or not. This act of bundling rooms and meal plans doesn’t seem to have a great argument for it. Perhaps that there is less variability in food planning, because a student in the dorm just can’t randomly go down and purchase meal tickets on days they want food, which may reduce meal size volatility and therefore help regulate the food prices. Still, I think there are other ways that can be accomplished.