I am an advertising major who feels deeply compelled to inform everyone of a serious injustice I encountered while taking advertising classes in the School of Communication. All CAP 202 graphic design classes have been overbooked, forcing students to learn in classrooms instead of computer labs. To supplement computer time the University has been so kind as to schedule us two four-hour block classes on the weekend,essentially forcing some students to drop the course.
Getting to class on the weekend is not as easy as the University may believe. Students have jobs and prior engagements on weekends. Also, by adding supplementarycomputer time, classroom hours have become over-saturated. We are covering the same material as previous years except we have over nine extra classes to learn it, making classes over-repetitive and boring.
Secondly, we are only granted four hours per graphic design program. What can we be expected to take away from one four hour class? This is a graphic design course, so doesn’t it stand to reason that graphic design programs should be at its heart?
Thirdly, since I, among others, cannot retain or learn very much about a program in one four-hour class, we are struggling with assignments. We have been told we can receive help from a lab assistant, but our lab teacher sent an email stating, “unfortunately, it seems that the lab being opened DOES NOT mean the same thing as having a lab assistant or one of us in there to help you. Chances are you won’t have “outside” help a lot of times…First of all, remember what we said in class: there’s no way we could’ve covered all we needed to while in there. Some of it we left for you guys to learn by yourselves.” Is this the reason that tuition here is so outrageous? Obviously this is a serious injustice that the University needs to rectify.
So are the CAP 202 students the only ones who have been cheated? Probably not. What it comes down to is that I fear the people at the top do not make decisions with us in mind; it is time the University goes back to work for students. Why don’t they take that extra few hundred thousand from overbooking and put it into something for students, instead of more landscaping. This institution owes the CAP 202 students an apology and explanation for their tactless decisions.
– Benjamin P. Kerzner, Senior Advertising Major