The essay of Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s by Brent Staples clearly mimics a problem solution essay that is very heavily focused on the problem. Staples takes a very assertive standpoint in insisting that over inflation of grades due to particular pressure on adjunct professors are devaluing degrees from collegiate institutions. Staples is convincing in this assertion as he uses generalized facts, “In some cases, campus wide averages have crept up from a C just 10 years ago, to a B-plus today.” This alarming quotation is used as evidence that supports Staples’ claim of a major problem facing collegiate institutions nationwide. The solution that Staples proposes, is a new grade point average formula.
Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus writes Are College Worth the Price of Admission? on how some universities should improve their approach to their students, faculty, and the school’s structure. They discussed how schools should be engaging their students. They mention several things that affects the faculty like sabbaticals, tenure, and adjuncts. They also made some statements regarding the school’s view on education.
The Community College of America covers this country college by college and community by a community (Addison, pg. 257). In the article “Community Colleges Offer a Smooth Transition” by Dale Schlundt the article kept repeating that with community colleges offer a smooth route to the transition from high school to the “new world” of college. Compared to their university peers, community college faculty are popularly constructed as advanced high school teachers with less teaching qualifications, credentials, or pedagogical preparation (Alexander, Karvonen, Ulrich, Davis, & Wade, 2012; Grubb, 1999; Townsend & Twombly,2007) (Flynn,2017, p.71).
State has three purposes for teaching its students: learning, research, and service. State feels its responsibility for learning is “on-campus and off-campus, to enhance the intellectual, cultural, social, and professional development of its students.” State feels its responsibility for students to research is “both to extend the present limits of knowledge and to bring deeper insight, understanding, and usefulness to existing knowledge.” State feels its responsibility for its students to perform service is “to apple knowledge and the fruits of research to the lives of people.” (General
When students set out for higher education and prepare for their future they usually have an end goal in mind. When most students come to college, they typically have an idea of what degree to pursue or what they are interested in studying. In Sanford J. Ungar’s article “The New Liberal Arts” he quoted that “The responsibility of higher education today is to prepare people for jobs that do not yet exist” (657). However, whatever job a student ends up in is significantly helped through higher education. With this in mind, college students need to have the skills needed to adapt to any situation and perform in many different ways.
In the article, “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko argues it is the fast food industry’s fault for the nation 's growing obesity epidemic. Furthermore, he believes people should not be blamed for their own obesity. Zinczenko argues fast-food is much more available to the fast paced lifestyle people live in rather than consuming healthy alternatives. He also discusses the fact so many people are on a low budget, it is then best and more inexpensive for them to consume fast-food. Zinczenko states a claim that the fast-food industry “would do well to protect themselves, and their customers, by providing the nutrition information people need” (Zinczenko 464).
In the articled titled “The New Liberal Arts” author Sanford J. Ungar states the importance of a liberal arts education and offers his critique on the common misconceptions surrounding them. Ungar offers his viewpoints on a variety of issues surrounding liberal arts educations including, the cost of the education, the usefulness of the degree, and the advantages of a post secondary education. While many people think liberal arts degrees are not worth the cost, Ungar suggests they can end up being less expensive than other larger public universities. He even claims they may be a better investment in the long run because a liberal arts education prepares you with a wide breadth of knowledge compared to a “Career Education.” Ungar also emphasizes
College, the most discussed and controversial topic for hundreds of years. The necessity of college has been discussed in many different countries for hundreds of years in the past and will still be just as controversial in the future. Many have asked why college is important and what it has to offer. William Deresiewicz in the chapter “What is College For?” from the book Excellent Sheep attempts to answer this question by using multiple literary elements to show his audience, which is primarily high schoolers, why college is the only option and is essential to all.
One of these surveys, summarized by Alexander Astin in “What Matters in College?”, surveyed over 200 four year colleges from the years 1985 to 1989 with a grand total of over 25,000 student participants. Through standardized testing and surveys came to the conclusion that colleges put a tremendous amount of emphasis on graduate school courses and research, and completely shortchange undergraduate education. Astin continues to state that through his findings, he found that the content of undergraduate classes made little difference to the effectiveness of the student’s education, instead what made the greatest difference was the method. Through his research, he believes that the current education system puts so much value on post-grad education and credibility, that the actual focus on student learning has been lost. Astin states that, “Our educational policies seemed to be based more on economic than on educational considerations”.
Originally universities were intended to guide student in the discovery of wisdom and knowledge, and more importantly impart what was necessary to find such things. In doing these things they were always trying to find out how they were intended to serve God, Country, friend, family, and the church. When the universities were originally founded they had one mission that did not vary between every person at the institute. It was originally intended to be a curriculum that was centered on God. They were also founded on the truth that there is a living God, and there are things to be known and discovered outside of the empirical (or hard) sciences (such as physics and
“.. have lost track of their basic mission to challenge the minds of young people. Higher education has become a colossus—a $420-billion industry—immune from scrutiny and in need of reform.” ( Hacker/Dreifus 180) The proposals that these authors suggested, can not only benefit colleges but its students. If colleges were more willinging to alter their systems, I believe students would succeed more in their college careers and have the desire to go and finish college.
Throughout history, we can notice how the universities have changed and the challenges they have faced, the sole transformation of being mainly a teaching institutions to become a research centers created an impact that to date, in my opinion, is something very positive, now the faculty not only have the duty for research but must disseminate this to the society which is one way to provide benefits and should be one of the main purposes. Virginia Tech within its history shows the great changes it has made starting from its name, passing through diversification of students, until today being in the top research universities, therefore need to strive and think over the new challenges and learn from the daily experiences. Deeply, draw me a lot
The land grant universities in the United States have a rich history of public service, practical research, teaching and outreaching for ordinary citizens. The success in this system over decades working hard to meet the communities’ needs in the United States and the world at large did not help to avoid some challenges. The land grant universities are facing many challenges and these challenges will continue within the next five to twenty five years, such as the climate changing and its impact on agricultural productivity, the engagement with the community, and the increase of professors and undergraduate students’ ages in the land grant universities. One of the most important challenges that faced land grant universities is that the global
The primary audience of this article appears to be individuals working in higher education, such as college
Establish a set of optimized, well-structured, and efficient communication processes at the College. Increased personal responsibility and leadership at all institutional levels. Protect the solid financial position and financial management of the College. Provide high quality customer services. (2019, December)
