The first two weeks of school this year have been hectic. They always are but these have been compounded by a special anxiety on everyone’s part. The faculty, staff, and administrators have been overwhelmed by their days off. The students are overwhelmed that we will have days off. In talking with some students, it took me awhile to convince them that furlough days weren’t just open office hours for drop in appointments all day long. It was kind of like trying to tell him McDonalds was going to be closed. They couldn’t believe it.
Some students have offered me tips on how I can get around the furloughs—how I can work without anyone knowing it. Some have suggested that I have my email forwarded to a non-university account, that way I can still be in touch. A few had elaborate schemes that would require me to sit for long periods in Starbucks across the street from campus. I think it would be strange to be fired because I was secretly reading my email or hanging around in a Starbucks but I suppose it could happen.
The start of classes is always crazy with students adding and dropping. But this year the chaos is far greater. The halls have been filled with crashers waiting to be the first in the door for the next class. I have seen students literally bolt from one class to run off to another as they try to add. We were instructed by the administration not to exceed our enrollment caps which after all the cuts in the course offerings, leaves students scrambling. The usual California leisurely student stroll looks more a fast walking competition.
I think that the administration is trying to spread classes around—to make sure that everyone has some classes and to fill up classes that run empty. While its intention is to work within our limited budget and serve everyone, it presents a harsh predicament for students. Just because a seat is available in a class, doesn’t mean that the student should or could take it. Sometimes they don’t even have the prerequisites or skills. Often it can’t count for any of their requirements.
Before classes started, I begin receiving a trickle of emails requesting to crash my US Film History class that meets on Friday mornings for about three hours. It is a popular class because of its topic made even more attractive by the fact that it fulfills numerous graduation requirements—the history major, film studies minor, upper division general education, and general electives. Soon the trickle became a flood. And the requests reflected the students’ desperation. Some just needed an extra course to fill out their schedule. But many were graduating seniors who, if they don’t find a course, will have to stay an extra semester. Others, if they can’t carry the required units, will lose their financial aid and have to drop out. Some had personal issues, like childcare or jobs, that made my class the only one they could take.
Sob stories, you say. Some are but most I am sure are not.
So I started a waiting list and added even more names on the day of the class. So far, I have only had four people drop the class. I’ve added as many people as I can from the waiting list.
Throughout the week I’ve received desperate emails from students trying to find a course. I’m certain I can’t add anyone more. I know that I have turned away at least twenty-five students but I’ve lost count.
Turning away crashers isn’t anything new here. But the number of crashers is. I also noticed something different in their mood. In the past, crashers either casually leave or try a little pressure or storm out in a huff. This year all I saw was despair and, this is true, even tears.
The students seem generally puzzled by the furloughs. They were shocked to find everything on campus closed during our first Friday class—it was a campus furlough day for staff and administrators. They couldn’t buy their books, go to financial aid, study in the library between classes, and had a hard time finding food. We (or at least I) had a brief scare when the technology station wouldn’t play the DVD that I wanted to show—a big deal in a film class–and later when it refused to display the PowerPoint presentation that went with my lecture. There wasn’t anyone to call to work out the glitches in the classroom technology. They were all on furlough.
I read online, thanks to a friend in Latin American Studies, that Eva Longoria of Desperate Housewives fame, has signed up for a masters degree in Chicano Studies and Political Science at one of our sister campuses, California State University Northridge (CSUN). It turns out that she has a B.S. in Kinesiology from Texas A&M. She is active in civil rights causes and has been driven by her commitment to seek a higher degree.
I was wondering if she was able to get all of her classes? If her classes were cut or degree program discontinued, how would that impact her quest? It would be hard to turn away Eva Longoria, I think. Everyone knows her. But that is what is happening all over CSU campuses. The names aren’t familiar but their goals are similar and they too, with the opportunity, promise to make their state, as well as their country, a better place to live.
So, now turning away our students would be the same as turning away Eva Longoria. Somehow that might make it seem more real to not only the public but the leaders of the CSU and the lawmakers who have so drastically cut the university’s budget.
past2present 