Registering for classes is known to be a time-consuming and stressful endeavor. Now, Fairfield students will be forced to tack on another two hours to this process.
Students of the class of 2011 will not be able to register for fall classes until they have completed a mandatory two-hour assessment survey, according to an official University memo.
Many said they are not happy about it.
The FUSA Senate Academics Committee is currently discussing a resolution that is expected to condemn the move and urge Academic Vice President Orin Grossman to drop the obligatory status of the Wabash National Survey of the Liberal Arts (WNS).
Although the WNS has incurred condemnation among many students, who say they are being unfairly threatened with denial of a fundamental University function, it is being defended by many faculty members, who suggest that the WNS survey will ultimately benefit Fairfield as a whole.
The survey, based out of Wabash College in Indiana, is intended to be one of the first steps in the Strategic Plan to construct a “culture of assessment” for the purpose of rating the efficiency of Fairfield and its educational programs by having students analyze study habits, faculty and critical reasoning/thinking, according to Curt Naser, philosophy professor and facilitator for academic assessment.
In the University memo addressed to the class of 2011, WNS is described as an “extraordinary opportunity.” It will require freshmen to go on their own time to one of several campus survey centers before the end of this semester.
They will be required to do the same thing again in three years when they are seniors.
Naser supported the survey, saying that the benefits would be enormous.
“We’re going to learn things, and we’re going to use that information to make changes from things like how we organize student housing, how we do advising, to how we teach in our classes,” he said. “That’s not a question that we’ve been able to answer before.”
Naser was also supportive of the decision to mandate a consequence rather than offer an incentive to freshmen, such as FYE credit.
“[Denying course registration] says that there is a sanction if you don’t participate,” he said. “On the other hand, it seems to me that if we don’t take seriously the project of asking the question, ‘Do our students learn what we profess to be teaching them?’ can we justify charging them $30,000-$40,000 a year?”
“I’m an ethicist. I think about these things,” he added.
Naser also said, that while the University’s decision appeared to be somewhat consequentialist, it did not endorse the ends-justifying-the-means approach.
Regardless, many student responses have not been positive.
Pat LaRiviere ’11 said he does not like the idea.
“It sounds pretty stupid to me,” he said. “If someone misses this by accident, it’ll mess up their schedule.”
Other students, such as Caitlin Parker ’11, said that the survey is something that has to be done.
“I can understand that they [school officials] have to do it, but I think that it’s going to be annoying,” she said. “It’s not that big of a deal.”
FUSA President Hutch Williams ’08 said the WNS survey may create dishonest results from bitter students.
“As a marketer, as someone who appreciates the value of research, this will definitely flaw the sampling,” he said. “It’s equivalent to upsetting someone in a store with bad customer service and immediately asking, ‘What did you think of your shopping experience?'”
Freshmen will be able to sign up for a survey session on Freshmen Salute Day in the BCC or via StagWeb.
Core and elective registration for freshmen will begin on April 17 and 18.
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