Class of '09
Staff Editorial
By: Editorial Board
Issue date: 3/17/06 Section: Opinions
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"It's hard out here for a Freshman." Not quite an Oscar-winning song, but something that this year's freshmen class can certainly relate to. The Furman faculty voted Monday to set the date for implementation of the calendar and curriculum change for the 2008-2009 school year. That is also known as the last year, the senior year, of the current freshmen class. The overwhelming opposition of that class to being put through a potentially messy change during that year has been chronicled many times.
This class, despite their hard work in measuring student opinion and creating petitions and documents that reflected the feelings of those most affected by the changes, was essentially told "we know better than you" by the faculty. That may or may not be correct, but the freshmen class surely deserved better treatment than that. They were told when entering Furman that they would go through all four years under the current calendar. In other words, truth in advertising was sorely lacking in the decision to implement in 2008.
The faculty obviously does not feel compelled to honor the promises made by the university to students when they were admitted. The new calendar and curriculum, despite its New Age course categories and transparent copying of other university's programs, could one day represent an improvement over current conditions at Furman. We just wish that student opinion was given more of a say and that the students in question were treated like adults instead of children in need of surrogate parents. In loco parentis is something that universities gave up decades ago in most areas. It's time that principle is extended to our ability to decide what is best for the development of our minds.
This class, despite their hard work in measuring student opinion and creating petitions and documents that reflected the feelings of those most affected by the changes, was essentially told "we know better than you" by the faculty. That may or may not be correct, but the freshmen class surely deserved better treatment than that. They were told when entering Furman that they would go through all four years under the current calendar. In other words, truth in advertising was sorely lacking in the decision to implement in 2008.
The faculty obviously does not feel compelled to honor the promises made by the university to students when they were admitted. The new calendar and curriculum, despite its New Age course categories and transparent copying of other university's programs, could one day represent an improvement over current conditions at Furman. We just wish that student opinion was given more of a say and that the students in question were treated like adults instead of children in need of surrogate parents. In loco parentis is something that universities gave up decades ago in most areas. It's time that principle is extended to our ability to decide what is best for the development of our minds.