There is something that is regularly on my mind, but which I have refrained from discussing in this forum in the past. Since I hope to be out of UK come August, I figure that now is the time to bring the matter up.
Most of the Kernel's readers, namely undergraduate students, are getting shafted by this school. My dad told me stories about the way big universities like this screw over their students, but I avoided this specter by getting my bachelor's degree from a liberal arts school (though it, like UK, was state-supported).
When I got to Lexington, I realized my father was right. (See, Dad, I can admit that you know a thing or two.)
Conversations with my undergraduate colleagues here at the Kernel leave me bewildered at the lack of concern or attention that UK devotes to its undergraduates.
Remember those shiny brochures you got from UK when you were in high school, or thinking of going back to college if you happen to be a non-traditional student? The University bragged about the special attention you'd get and how some impressive percentage of the faculty had doctorates.
You probably read about the seemingly low student-to-faculty ratio and thought that it sounded pretty nifty. Just the kind of place to get an education, huh?
The harsh reality of college life hits home no matter where a student goes, but in the case of a school like this, it can be even worse. How good do you feel when you have to show a student ID to get into your exam because your instructor doesn't know you from the other 400 people in the class?
What's it like to finish your first week of classes without laying eyes on a real professor? Not as nifty as the brochure hyped it up to be, huh?
It must suck to have nearly all of your classes taught by a kid my age who has nothing but a four-year degree. But UK has to operate this way so that it can make life cushy for the faculty and pay its administrators wads of cash to fluff up academic reputations and rake in grant money for research projects.
Face it ... the administration doesn't care about you. Otherwise, they'd actually make faculty teach more than two classes every semester. Heck, the faculty in more powerful departments get away with only teaching one section a semester. That doesn't do much for that low ratio, eh?
My jaw dropped the day I heard a prof (he shall remain nameless, since I don't have a clue what his name was) moan about what a burden it was to teach two sections each semester and three different courses during the year.
How can you have respect for someone like that? Someone who sits in an office and reads articles by other people who live in the ivory towers of academia, then complains about having to walk to class four times a week? These faculty should spend time working in factories or restaurants during their summers, like many students do.
Sadly, most of that factory-job money goes into the administration's right hand, while its left hand shoos these exploited souls into second-rate classrooms with barely educated instructors for the first two years of their college careers.
I shudder when I hear of freshman survey classes that have hundreds of students in them, and teachers who never learn the names of their students, nor ever want to. This has happened to most of you, and I pity you. If you're not angry, you should be, because things aren't like this everywhere.
There are schools where faculty invite students into their homes, and professors teach for a living. Universities where faculty get promotions for winning teaching awards, where most classes have less than 30 students, and if one of them makes an "F" on a test, the professor will haul them to their office to tell them to shape up. I was lucky enough to go to one of those schools.
Students at UK are being shafted, and many of them don't realize it. Do something about it. Take your tuition dollars to a real school, or refuse to take courses from unqualified instructors. As the situation stands, you're nothing but sausage in a machine, being churned out and stuffed into a mold. No care, no quality, no attention to detail.
Staff Columnist Kevin Cullen is a library science graduate student.
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