Why do you attend college? Your first response right off the bat is most likely, "To party!" Now that you have that out of your system, actually think about the question. Why do you attend college?  Most of you will respond, "To learn the skills we will need in our future career," but if its college night at the bars some might still shout, "To party!" We, the three wise men of comp 1102, think that in todays world its neither. Students go to college to obtain a diploma which in turn makes them hirable, most of the time it doesn't even matter if their diploma relates to what they get a job in. So now that we have stated why people go to college, what does it take to actually come out on the other end of this system that is college? It is not a secret that the trials of making it successfully through college are very arduous. What most people don't understand is in conjunction with an extremely diverse student body population, the hurdles in question take on very different forms. As such, Universities need to more accurately address these situations by more and better programs tailored to the individualistic needs of students.  The universities of today are not meeting their obligations to fulfill students with the necessary knowledge to undoubtebly succeed in the new millenium.  Some may take their college degree and become very successful, but others aren't taught how to use their diploma in the correct manner.  The schools aren't properly assisiting students in their indivual needs such as financially, intectually, and socially. 

 

Prices :

 

How much do you pay for college?  Were not just talking about tuition, but what about all of the collateral expenses?  How much do you pay for parking, meal plans / food, dormatories / appartments, etc.?  The cost of college these days is rising astronomically, and as such are we getting more benefits?  No, instead we seem to be paying more for the collateral expenses associated with college.  Is it fair that if you buy a textbook at the beggining of a semester, take perfect care of it during the semester, and only receive half of the price of which you initially bought it for at the end of the semester?  Why does the bookstore feel it necessary to turn a profit, and furthermore, whom receives the revenue from this?  Universities, more specifically State Schools, seem to have a misconception that they are anything but a non-profit organization.  Disregarding the book store for a minute, part of what we pay for is the fascilities such as libraries necessarily to obtain adequately raise our level of knowledge to complete course assignments.  If this is so doesn't the university have the obligations to provide these fascilities to students while classes are in session?  If this is so then why is the Library closed on weekends while Summer courses are in session?  With as much as we pay for college is it right that we are still charged even the smallest expenses such as paying for the paper when we print something out off a computer?  No, College is far too expensive, both directly as well as indirectly for students to turn a blind eye to these injustices.

 

Have you ever thought about how expensive college is in terms of just the cost of living associated with attending college?  College students face all the financial burdens of those not in college but don't have the ability, for obvious reasons, to seek full time employment.  Even with this stipulated, college Financial Aid Systems only factor in the ability of the student to pay tuition and not the students ability to support themselves.  Even government agencies have recognized these vast collateral expenses of attending college.  This is best seen when last month President Bush passed a new G.I. Bill which not only pays for a Veteran's tuition, but also allocates to the individual money for books, and living expenses every month.

 

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-the-Cost-of-College-Tuition?&id=59147

 

http://eduplan.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/college-tuition-rates-up-yet-again/

 

Backgrounds:

 

Have you ever heard the saying, "Todays Bachelor Degree is yesterdays high school diploma?"  Not that long ago university systems were comprised mostly of students hailing from affluent parents, and for the rest of the population, graduating high school was a task that only some completed.  However, this has vastly changed.  Today's collegiate system is comprised of a wide variety of students from all classes, ethnicities, and backgrounds, which school systems fail to adequately address.  For example, no matter what the age of the individual might be, Freshman Orientation still completely targets younger students whom will be away from home for the first time.  Is this wrong?  Absolutely not, but what about the other students who are in there mid-20's and have been away from home for quite some time?  How is this benefitting them?  It is time the University System started addressing the needs of there student population who do not fit into the, just graduated high school from an american school and are now rolling right into college."  They need to take into account the ages of the incomming freshman, and cultural differences from study abroad students.

 

Well whats the answer?  The answer isn't as complicated as it seems.  Universities need to merely give more options as to what kind of orientation students would like to attend.  For example, offer a Freshman Orientation for students who have been away from home for some time, as well as an orientation for students hailing from other countries.  This would target the needs of the student body much more directly than having just the one, supposedly all-encompasing orientation.

 

So is it just freshman orientations that the school system is behind on?  No, this is just one example of how school systems are failing to meet the needs of it students in the twenty first century.  There are many, many areas with which the school system is failing students, all stemming from the fact that, like freshman orientations, they continue to try to lump all students into one catagory and do not even attempt to address concerns on an individual basis.  If they did they might be very suprised at some of the needs of their students.  With the advent of the GI Bill and an even more encompasing tuition assistance package for Veterans planned to be enacted in August of 2009, Veterans of our U.S. Military are seeking degrees in record numbers.  While we do have a Veteran's Services Office which does answer questions related to there education assistance, schools look over the transitional needs of these veterans too.  "A lot of the veterans go to the university, and they kind of get lost," said Tony Diaz, veteran affairs coordinator at Seattle Central Community College.  No matter what branch they served in, Military life is as rigorous one, and full of structure.  For these students, adjusting to student life is much more arduous then most, including the school system, give it credit for.  Schools need to set up programs targeted at assisting these students in there mental transition from a military mindset to a collegiate mindset.

 

It is understood that the needs of students vary from individual to individual, but universities can and must do a better job of addressing reoccuring issues amongst its student body.

 

 Learning Styles:

 

Now that we have addressed the growing diversity of the student body, let us observe the practical applications for an actual classroom.  One of the biggest impacts of diversity in the classroom are the learning styles excersized.  Are learning styles only effected by one's background?  Of course not, it has been well known for quite some time that everyone has a preffered way of synthesising knowledge, but backgrounds can and do have an effect on this as well.  One of the fasted growing means of teaching is taking a class online, but this is a challenge for older students whom aren't quite as adept with computers as there younger counterparts.  Do learning styles have to specifically correlate with the students background?  Not necessarily, it differs with each individual student.  Universities first need to help students learn what there best learning style is either by a questionaire, or some other eye opening study.  They then need to follow through with annotating on different class selections what learning style the instructor principly imploys. 

 

Ian - After reading this paragraph, i think that i could split it up and i liked the way the questions were interpretted into the paragraph. But i think that if i split up the areas after the questions and add more material between them. I think that i could add more on each topic.

Learning Styles

- visual learners, audio, hands on

- class sizes

- online classes

- indivual students learning styles

- weather and location

 

 

 

Learning Styles:

Closing Statement:

As the world continues to become "smaller" and more globalized, universities are not rising to the challenges students face and will face now and in the future after school.