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Fresno State should graduate from the stone age
Are you graduating this May? Why does it take so long? That is the question. Spring break is next week and when we come back we will only have about five weeks until graduation. 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. 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). 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. So this means it has taken more than two months to get through about a week’s worth of applications. 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. 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. 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. 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? 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. 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. We were able to be heard about the class schedule being issued in print, now what about this? — This columnist may be reached at collegian@csufresno.edu |
