dan
02-08-2005, 01:33 PM
From Times Union
Fewer and fewer undergraduates in New York's public colleges are graduating in four years.
Should alarms be going off? No, I don't think so.
Although you will hear differently from Governor Pataki and Tom Egan, chairman of the State University of New York board of trustees. The two are floating a new plan -- part of the governor's proposed budget -- called Partnership to Accelerate Completion Time (PACT).
Actually, it is an old plan, already in place at the State University College at Fredonia where a staggering 1 percent of the student body is participating.
Pataki at least is working the carrot by offering SUNY campuses a $500 bounty for each young scholar processed through in exactly four years.
Students who sign up for the program and stay on schedule are guaranteed the classes they need to graduate (a big deal and a frequent reason for a fifth year) or the classes are free.
The bad cop here is Egan, who is demanding that those damned kids get in and out just as fast as they can.
"It is not good for a student to stay beyond the required time to complete a degree," Egan stated bluntly. "The faster they can get into the work force, the better it is for them economically." Yeah, right, sure. Ready or not, here they come.
What he's really saying is because the state subsidizes each fully matriculated student by about $12,400 a year, the sooner each is out, the sooner the burden is lifted. It's about processing numbers, getting "value" for the public education dollar and making funds available for the next student. One size education timetable fits all.
Ice cold, but perfect logic, in a twisted, Dickensian sort of way.
The emphasis is at the wrong end here. It should not be about forcing the leaders of tomorrow into behavioral boxes designed by a couple of old fuddy-duddies. It just won't work. For centuries, efforts to make undergrads behave on a timeline have failed. So has asking them to clean up their rooms.
If we value those who make the cut and get into the State University system, as we say we do, we should expend the effort to find out why four-year graduation rates have slipped by close to 20 percentage points from when I was an undergraduate 40 years ago.
Then maybe we might tailor a more productive response based on their needs, rather than ours. Please, don't tell me it's because students are dumber, or less motivated or lazier. I don't buy it for a second. Remember your own teenage years. If ever there was a definition of hell on earth, that would be the time period, and I would argue it is tougher to grow up today than ever before.
I can think of dozens of reasons for not graduating in four years, and so can you.
Some are compelling reasons, some downright heart-tugging. Others, well, less legit in our eyes. But then we aren't the kid in knots trying to figure out who he is and where he's going. It's always easy to pass judgment after everything has fallen into place.
For more than 20 years, I taught at my alma mater, the University at Albany. A startling lesson relearned every semester was how the level of maturity for any four students in front of me could range from A to Z. The best thing for many of them -- for their futures, for their parents, for society -- was to stay right there until they were ready.
Consider it protecting a precious investment. They're our kids, remember?
Fewer and fewer undergraduates in New York's public colleges are graduating in four years.
Should alarms be going off? No, I don't think so.
Although you will hear differently from Governor Pataki and Tom Egan, chairman of the State University of New York board of trustees. The two are floating a new plan -- part of the governor's proposed budget -- called Partnership to Accelerate Completion Time (PACT).
Actually, it is an old plan, already in place at the State University College at Fredonia where a staggering 1 percent of the student body is participating.
Pataki at least is working the carrot by offering SUNY campuses a $500 bounty for each young scholar processed through in exactly four years.
Students who sign up for the program and stay on schedule are guaranteed the classes they need to graduate (a big deal and a frequent reason for a fifth year) or the classes are free.
The bad cop here is Egan, who is demanding that those damned kids get in and out just as fast as they can.
"It is not good for a student to stay beyond the required time to complete a degree," Egan stated bluntly. "The faster they can get into the work force, the better it is for them economically." Yeah, right, sure. Ready or not, here they come.
What he's really saying is because the state subsidizes each fully matriculated student by about $12,400 a year, the sooner each is out, the sooner the burden is lifted. It's about processing numbers, getting "value" for the public education dollar and making funds available for the next student. One size education timetable fits all.
Ice cold, but perfect logic, in a twisted, Dickensian sort of way.
The emphasis is at the wrong end here. It should not be about forcing the leaders of tomorrow into behavioral boxes designed by a couple of old fuddy-duddies. It just won't work. For centuries, efforts to make undergrads behave on a timeline have failed. So has asking them to clean up their rooms.
If we value those who make the cut and get into the State University system, as we say we do, we should expend the effort to find out why four-year graduation rates have slipped by close to 20 percentage points from when I was an undergraduate 40 years ago.
Then maybe we might tailor a more productive response based on their needs, rather than ours. Please, don't tell me it's because students are dumber, or less motivated or lazier. I don't buy it for a second. Remember your own teenage years. If ever there was a definition of hell on earth, that would be the time period, and I would argue it is tougher to grow up today than ever before.
I can think of dozens of reasons for not graduating in four years, and so can you.
Some are compelling reasons, some downright heart-tugging. Others, well, less legit in our eyes. But then we aren't the kid in knots trying to figure out who he is and where he's going. It's always easy to pass judgment after everything has fallen into place.
For more than 20 years, I taught at my alma mater, the University at Albany. A startling lesson relearned every semester was how the level of maturity for any four students in front of me could range from A to Z. The best thing for many of them -- for their futures, for their parents, for society -- was to stay right there until they were ready.
Consider it protecting a precious investment. They're our kids, remember?