I hope you took the time to vote in our online poll about whether you feel your voice is heard in decisions affecting Tech. This is a very serious issue facing Tech. Emily is handling apathy on campus regarding this issue, so I am going to tackle whether the University is doing the best job it can.
I’ll start with SGA. So far this semester, I think the student government is doing a fine job. Admittedly, however, if this year’s SGA doesn’t cancel meetings for Greek Week, it is light years ahead of its predecessors.
When SGA passes a bill, it must then be approved by the administration before changing anything at Tech.
Given these jurisdiction limitations, if SGA is not making headlines, it might generally be a good thing.
SGA requires help from students to raise issues on campus. They need to know what the student body thinks to better serve it.
Next, the university administration could be doing a much better job.
Let’s begin with last week’s university forum. Didn’t hear about it? That’s OK; I didn’t either until after it happened.
For something named university forum, one would think you would want the university there, not just faculty.
It was a discussion, or rather a sales pitch, on whether the university should implement more technology on campus.
One would think, however, students would want to weigh in on the potential proposals.
Freeze frame. I know this is Tennessee Technological University, so we should be accepting new technology with open arms, but some of the proposals were just insane.
For example, combining general curriculum classes and having fewer teachers in the room that will “teach” the students. Wait, stop. Think about that.
First, here is the major pro of this idea. It will save money. But, at what cost to students?
Show of hands, how many people want to or wanted to go to a general curriculum class outside of your major?
My hand didn’t go flying up and I imagine many others didn’t either. And from personal experience, most people didn’t attend.
I am a graduate of the history program from this fine school, and I can tell you going to biology or math classes was like pulling teeth.
So make attendance mandatory.
That has been tried too, but guess what the most productive thing most students get done in a room of 300? Most probably manage to update their Facebook status.
So here’s the plan. To save some scratch the university will greatly reduce the professor-student interaction in that class.
This makes it exponentially less likely for students to grasp the material or be able to ask questions.
Man, I would have liked to have had my voice heard on that issue.
So university administration, please don’t schedule important discussions like this during class hours. Or, name it something like “university” forum when you only want faculty there, especially when you make decisions that directly affects my education, which on a funny note, I am paying you for.
