Editorial written by Prof. Thomas Wellock, History Dept. Last Quarter.

Emphasis added by Bob Ota

Today’s the first day of courses at CWU, so I’m devoting this column to the quality of education on campus. You have no doubt heard of the statistic that the income of college graduates rapidly outpaces their less educated peers. It has led many wavering high school students to give college a try.

Lately, the value of a college degree has been called into question for students who struggle in high school, a significant percentage of our student body. For those who graduate in the bottom 40% of their high school class, the odds against them completing college are 2 to 1. Even if they graduate, most of them won’t find employment that requires a college degree, and their employers will grumble about their basic skills, especially in oral and written communication. Colleges take their tuition money but leave these students with mortgage-sized debts and no future.

There is a value in institutions that have a generous admissions policy like CWU’s. We offer less advanced students a second chance and many succeed with it. But they need help to overcome their lack of preparation and, more importantly, poor work habits. In both areas, we are failing them with low expectations.

This isn’t just the opinion of a cranky professor; our students tell us this is so. The National Survey of Student Engagement polls freshman and seniors at most of America’s colleges regarding their college experiences. Compared to our peer institutions, CWU students do less studying (the majority less than 10 hours per week!), campus activities, employment, and family responsibilities. What are they doing with all that spare time? The survey reports that CWU students excel at socializing, watching TV, playing video games, and partying. Our students aren’t dropping out because they are over worked and can’t hack it, and those who graduate enter the working world having spent more time on an Xbox than their studies.

Why don’t they work harder? They don’t need to. We have created a system that goes easy on students. There are many reasons for this, but today I’ll discuss general education courses.

General education courses aim to provide a well-rounded education, but have become a way of mining students for scarce resources. In general education, students choose from a menu of classes in the sciences, humanities, and arts. While creating a marketplace of ideas sounds good, it encourages mediocrity when coupled with a student’s inclination to find the easiest path to a degree. Departments make students, and administrators happy when they create large, easy courses with little grading. Students flock to these courses, and administrators reward departments with resources for their efficiency in filling seats.

Students are aided and abetted in their search for the easy A by staff advisors. The well-meaning staffers no doubt want to boost retention rates, but this has a corrosive effect on quality. As a result, challenging classes with multiple assignments are discouraged with low enrollments, fewer resources, and more grading for the faculty.

It’s a Darwinian struggle in reverse where the less fit courses survive and flourish. Many general education courses eliminate writing assignments and oral presentations altogether. In a pathetic move to raise standards, we created “writing courses” but the faculty chopped down the requirement to only seven pages. This isn’t college-level work. As one colleague whose high-school daughter took courses on campus sarcastically commented, “CWU provided her with an excellent high school education.”

Fortunately, the faculty are attempting a revision of the general education program to include more essential skill development. But this means devoting more resources to instruction, a slice of the university budget pie that has shrunk under the current administration. Passing serious reform will no doubt hurt some department budgets, but it will hurt the students even more if we don’t.