Published on Thursday, November 15, 2007

UNIV 101 falls short on acclimating new students

By

Need a GPA boost?

Have time to kill and a credit to fill?

Then come on down to UNIV 101, where a worthwhile education is secondary to learning common sense.

UNIV 101 – the “university experience” course – is described in the NIU undergraduate catalog as being an “exploration of factors influencing the transition into the university.”

Though it’s a fine idea for a course aimed at freshmen and transfer students, the class fails in its goal simply because a student can’t “transition into the university” by watching “Crash” and writing make-believe cover letters to land a make-believe job at a make-believe corporation.

The instructors that take the time to put UNIV 101 classes together on a daily basis deserve credit for making an effort to give students a class experience they can use to benefit their daily academic lives; and, for a number of students polled, it has. However, when it comes to teaching students to adapt to college life, UNIV 101 is as about as effective as giving a fish a bath.

If NIU wants to better acclimate students to college life, there are better ways to do it than by offering credit to students for occasionally showing up to a class that requires little effort to succeed in, a lesson that hardly prepares students for the challenges that lie ahead.

The topics covered in the class – from interviewing techniques to time management – are all useful and important, but can potentially be presented on their own and in greater detail to students who actually care if the university would promote such programs.

Just like you can’t teach students to be responsible, you also can’t teach them to acclimate to the overwhelmingly frightening wilderness college can be for those who first embark on it, and that’s why NIU should not be spending students’ money on producing a class where grades are predicated on just being there.

On the other hand, Ludacris is a good actor.