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<td width="343" valign="bottom"><p class="date"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="date" --><a href="default.html">4/2/04 • Vol.
128, No. 29</a><!-- InstanceEndEditable --></p></td>
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<p><a href="stoneage.jsp">Fresno State should graduate from the stone
age</a></p>
<p><a href="simplertext.jsp">You're still here??!!</a></p>
<p><a href="letters.jsp">Letters to the Editor</a></p>
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<h1><font size="5">Fresno State should graduate from the stone age</font></h1>
<p class="byline"> </p>
<p class="byline">By Irene Thirlwall</p>
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<td><p><a href="graduate.jpg"><img src="graduate.jpg" alt="" name="Photo" width="162" height="363" border="0" style=""></a></p>
<p align="justify"><em><strong>-Art by John Rios</strong></em></p>
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<p class="storyText">Are you graduating this May? Why does it take so long?
That is the question.</p>
<p class="storyText"> Spring break is next week and when we come back we
will only have about five weeks until graduation.</p>
<p class="storyText"> Many seniors who have applied for graduation (including
myself) have not heard anything yet. Why? Because our school’s evaluation process
is still being handled like we were back in the day of the dinosaur.
No computers, no technology.</p>
<p class="storyText"> Coordinator of evaluations, Beverly Kirkland said
that her staff is currently working on applications submitted on January
28 or 29. (This was of March
30).</p>
<p class="storyText"> Kirkland also said they will be working on applications
up until the day of graduation and there is still a student who was supposed
to graduate
last semester who still does not know if he has graduated or not.</p>
<p class="storyText"> So this means it has taken more than two months to
get through about a week’s worth of applications.</p>
<p class="storyText"> This is unacceptable. Why do we as students, just
wait and wait and say nothing? This is our lives after all. It is possible
that you could be
missing a semester full of work and still have to come back and finish.
And what about that $35 fee? You have to pay it again if you don’t
graduate.</p>
<p class="storyText"> Kirkland said the $35 fee is for the processing and
diploma, but if you don’t receive your diploma you still have to pay the $35 again.</p>
<p class="storyText"> When I went into the evaluations office I was told
that I should purchase my cap and gown and that if I did not graduate
this time I could use
them again later.</p>
<p class="storyText"> Do these people not realize that graduating is not
just putting on a cap and gown? Graduating means moving on with our lives.
For some of
us, it will mean more time to spend with our families. Others can start
looking for work. And for those of us who still need to take more classes,
wouldn’t you like to know as soon as possible to be able to register
and get into that class or classes?</p>
<p class="storyText"> Yes the DARS report is supposed to put us at ease,
but that is more difficult to read than VCR directions—in Spanish! I have had two advisers
overlook classes that I still need to take.</p>
<p class="storyText"> It seems to me that graduation is being taken lightly
as just some one-day ceremony. I believe that students who feel this
process could be done
in a more efficient and timely manner should speak up.</p>
<p class="storyText"> We were able to be heard about the class schedule
being issued in print, now what about this?</p>
<p class="storyText"> —
This columnist may be reached at collegian@csufresno.edu</p>
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