Alittle over a month ago, Professor X, an education columnist for Newsweek magazine’s website dailybeast.com, evaluated a study recently released by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. The study drew all but obvious parallels between earning at least a bachelor’s degree and earning more money over the course of a 40-year career in various industries, compared to people who have only some college experience or less.
Although the numbers presented in the study may be anything but subtle ”” “What possible economic interest could the folks at Georgetown University have in promoting ever-increasing levels of college attendance?” Professor X asked ”” the most interesting part of the project, as X pointed out, was that it was possible to earn good money in specific careers without an undergraduate degree.
This resonated with me because of the disgruntled attitude toward school I’ve observed from friends of mine, as well as fellow classmates. A select few have gone so far as to quit school completely, because they knew they could earn good money doing what they wanted to do without a bachelor’s, without even reading any fancy educational study.
The project highlighted, inadvertently, a problem that students are facing at universities across the country ”” including those at Fresno State.
The problem is a lack of relevance and flexibility in the established educational system at postsecondary schools in every part of the United States, public and private. If students had the chance to choose the subjects they learn about, beyond picking out a class from a list that may not even teach them anything they need or want to know, academia in general would be a lot better off. Students who have a choice in choosing what they learn will be more incentivized to take an active role in what they learn and how they are educated.
If universities gave students more control in writing the curriculum for their program or major, not only would students be more willing to learn what their professors have to teach them, but they would be better prepared for whatever their postgraduate or professional goals happen to be.
Some schools have already figured this out. The Johnston Center for Integrative Studies at University of Redlands has let students form special majors and write the curriculum for their program since 1969. Drexel University recently instituted a self-designed major program for students who find a more traditional curriculum boring or irrelevant. And while Fresno State has the option for students to design a special major, maybe we need to take it a step further.
Fresno State has always prided itself on being the people’s university. And with our Centennial year just behind us, the administration and faculty of this school have pushed to make Fresno State a twenty-first century university.
With these two values in mind, it’s necessary to actively involve students in preparing the curriculum of the various majors we have on campus to become one of the nation’s leading universities. If students on this campus, specifically, get involved in forming academic plans for their majors by working with the faculty and staff who teach us, then Fresno State would be well on it’s way to truly becoming a university for a new century.
That, without a doubt, would give schools like Georgetown a run for its money.
Maddie Shannon is a former columnist and Arts & Entertainment editor for The Collegian.
