There’s a lot of hoopla surrounding the general education program in the CSU system. Faculty members are up in arms about what programs to cut and which to keep. They’re mulling over different proposals to try to figure out what works best for the school and are hard at work doing so. They want to get this done in time to make changes for the next fall semester.
SGA President Eric Bergenn is now trying to get himself, and the student body he represents, involved in the process. Beyond voting at last week’s SGA meeting whether or not to approve his proposal to the Faculty Senate, he’s had little to no support. That’s baffling.
One of the biggest things that students complain about here at CCSU are the requirements for general education. It contributes to students having to stay longer, study longer and pay more tuition. The fact that no one is lining up to help the SGA try to get student input into the discussion is a sign of weakness on behalf of us all.
It’s frustrating that we can complain to our friends that a biology lab is keeping us from graduating, but when the opportunity is presented for us to say something to the faculty who will be making an overhaul of the system, we’re silent. Student turn-out at all of the General Education open forums has been poor at best.
There was a time when a college campus was a soapbox to stand on for issues to be challenged. Now we hide behind our Twitter handles and complain about #CCSU, but we don’t have the gall to say it out loud. Have we become weak? No, it goes beyond that.
If you peruse the social networks and look at comments about this University, we have no shortage of opinions. Unfortunately, these are not making their way to any administrators in any fashion that holds a speck of validity.
The problem lies in what our generation views as acceptable forms of communication. At this publication, we stress the importance of the well-crafted and edited written word. We have an obvious outlet to do so where some do not, but our opinions can only enter this editorial box on a given week.
As students, we have great power. Our opinions should be prevalent instead of hidden. Whether or not the administrators here would ever admit it, they work for us. We pay for our education and we are employing them to teach us. Without completely throwing aside the respect we should have for all of them, we should remember that we have numbers on our side.
We’re not advocating a riot here in any way, but if we’re not expressing to the faculty and administration what our desires are, then we are wasting time. At no point in our working careers should we be quiet and go with the flow if we don’t agree with what’s happening around us.
College should be a proving ground for the rest of our lives. This is no place to be apathetic. If something is worth complaining about, then it is worth changing. By showing the administration that we care about decisions they are making, we will also demonstrate to them that we take ourselves and our futures seriously.
