Our Voice

    You’ve finally done it.  After four or so years of hard work and toil, you’ve finally knocked out 120 hours worth of credit.  Oh yeah, you’re elated.  And for good reason.
    It’s the day you have been waiting for since freshman year.  The one where you get to walk and get your diploma, and hug your friends and family and cry tears of joy (or just throw your hat if you aren’t the sensitive kind).
    But first, you have to get that nice pink slip of paper from the Registrars office that lets you know if you are graduating or not.
    No sweat.  You’re fine.  You were real careful this semester to get the number of hours down right.   You even took that extra wellness class to give you that last necessary hour.  It’s smooth sailing for you now.
    Or is it?  Word on the street says that for those of you who are graduating this May, your application might be coming back with a little note saying you need more hours.
    Wait, what?
    You might be thinking to yourself, maybe you miscalculated or maybe the Registrar got it wrong, but most likely you’re thinking “how in the world did this happen?”
    You can thank Wellness classes and freshman seminar for the reason you are missing hours. That’s right.  Unfortunately for you, those hours you spent jogging have come to nothing.  And that freshmen seminar was mandatory for you to sit through your freshman year?  Hope it taught you things, cause it isn’t worth anything at the end of the road.
    Like we said, the word on the street is that the school has decided that these courses will no longer count towards a degree.  And we know what you are thinking, “why would they would even offer classes that they don’t plan on giving you credit for?”  
    Well, we are still trying to figure that out. 
    So, what now?  You expected to be done, but you have three outstanding hours.  Well, it’s nothing that a quick summer class can’t knock out, or an online class somewhere.  But what if you have your capstone project or internship lined up and can’t take one more class?  What then?
    By this point, we think we’ve outlined the problem fairly well.  After this long and lengthy hypothetical situation, what solution do we propose?
    Firstly, any class that is mandatory should count towards our graduation.  It’s that simple.
    Secondly, anyone who began attending GCSU before this policy was implemented, or took a wellness class before this policy was added should be grandfathered out of the system.  It’s unfair to punish students later for something that was right at the time. 
    Finally, anyone joining the university after the change, and who signs up for a wellness class should not receive credit, however. 
    It’s not that we’re opposed to this change.  We simply don’t think that the policy should harm students that took these classes in a time where they still counted one hour at a time.  So long as there is time for students to grow used to the policy, and so long as it is clearly stated when students are enrolling for a class, we see no reason why they should have to count for graduation.

    Send responses to colonnadeletters@gcsu.edu

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 16 2007. Filed under Opinion, Our Voice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry