President Rosenberg, frankly, the email you sent on July 9 insults us.
Do you believe you’re dealing with over 45,000 Van Wilders here at FIU? That we are not doing everything we can to graduate in four or five years?
You said in your email that, over the course of the past year, the University has hired more than 50 advisers. Thank you.
And the University has added more than 1,000 courses and expanded online programs. Thanks for that too.
The subject line of your email, “Your success is our #1 priority,” is at least encouraging to hear from our president. But the fact that you believe “many students – whether full or part time—delay taking needed courses and unnecessarily prolong their time to degree,” negates that warm fuzzy feeling.
The Beacon declares shenanigans.
Unless a student is trying to pull Van Wilder-esque moves, chances are that they’re attending the University to garner the necessary skill sets and experiences to better prepare themselves for entering the workforce.
As students, graduating within the four years becomes a challenge when our respective departments don’t have the adequate resources to accommodate the exponential growth in enrollment that you’ve brought upon the University in the past three years.
Examples of this are present throughout the University, but more specifically in the Department of History and the Department of Psychology. For both departments, there isn’t a lack of desire on the students’ end to graduate as quickly as possible, but a lack of sections available and/or professors to teach the track-required courses for their respective degrees.
The Beacon acknowledges and commends what strides the University has made since the implementation of the “Worlds Ahead” plan in 2010, but don’t lay the blame for the University’s average graduation rate of six years on the student body.
For the most part, we don’t want to be here longer than we have to, and we do not purposely “delay taking needed courses and unnecessarily prolong” our time as students. More often than not, the needed courses simply aren’t available.
Let’s be real here, we as students want to be at the University just as long as you want to have us here. Before you start urging us to check out by noon, make sure that the University has all of its ducks in a row so that the blame is no longer misplaced.
About Post Author
