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Essay, 6 pages (1500 words)

Semantics and critical thinking – group project essay

Evening degree students are treated with less regard than day time students which causes undue levels of stress, frustration and disappointment, which impedes evening degree students’ successful completion of the program.

ISSUE: Evening degree students (EDS) experience undue levels of stress, frustration, and disappointment because the University of the Pacific (UOP) does not deliver the same services extended to day time students, nor does UOP attend to the concerns of EDS. PROBLEM: Evening degree students are unable to maximize the resources that comes with program that they enrolled for, since access to facilities and accommodations are insufficient, the inadequate and inefficient delivery of services regarding pertinent needs of EDS (including recording of grades, financial records, and transcript requirements) showing UOP’s lack of concern towards EDS. DEFINITIONS: Evening Degree Students (EDS) refer to graduate students, mostly professional adults, who complete their academic programs with evening schedules. Treated with less regard pertains to the attention given to evening degree students as less as compared to day time students in matters of accommodations, facilities, and delivery of services. PREMISES: 1.

Basic accommodations like the dining hall and the book store are closed during the evening, rendering these resources and their services inaccessible to EDS. 2. Classrooms available for EDS are not conducive to learning, as necessary equipment are not available (like overhead projectors, whiteboards) and seats are fit for grade school students, not adults.

3. Communication between EDS and UOP is inefficient and insufficient. OBJECTIONS: 1.

The University of the Pacific is a small privately-funded university, and as such, maintaining and keeping all the services such as the book store and the dining hall open after 5 PM is cost effective, considering that the majority of the university population will not be able to use these resources. EDS are free to make use of services and facilities from 8 AM to 5 PM. 2. The classrooms all over the university are similarly structured and equipped with the basic usable desks and chairs for the students. Classrooms are scheduled for classes in accordance with routine procedures, and any special requirements such as projectors should be requested as per procedure as well. 3. It is true that the university is small compared to other universities, but the fact remains that it caters to several thousand students and their concerns on a daily basis addressing administrative issues and requests. Further, several communication channels are made available to the students to ensure that adequate attention can be given to various concerns.

Students can contact the university personnel in person, through the telephone, by mail, or via the internet. REBUTTAL OF OBJECTIONS: 1. During the information meetings held for the program, EDS were informed student services and amenities are available to both day time and evening degree students. However, this claim did not specify that the student services and amenities will only be available to EDS during the time that these are available to day time students. EDS have special needs – these are people who attend classes in the evening because they cannot afford to do so during the day.

Student services that are not available to EDS when they need them simply mean that these are unavailable to EDS. 2. The routine procedure for scheduling classrooms is not properly implemented. EDS often find their classrooms locked with nobody to unlock the rooms, making the rooms not readily available on their scheduled classes. 3. The fact that the university deals with a large volume of student requests and concerns on a daily basis is not an excuse for the quality of communication that the university makes available to the students.

The fact remains that even with all the various channels of communication available, prompt actions and responses in terms of requests and information management is lacking, and clearly this is a sign that there is a communication gap between the students’ needs and the university’s solutions. CONCLUSION: EDS are treated with less regard than day time students in that the needs of EDS are not properly addressed by UOP, and efforts to make available basic services and resources are not present. The inefficiencies brought about by the unavailability of services and resources, like the delays in textbook acquisitions, scheduling of classes and room reservations, and managing necessary financial and academic records and requirements, cause EDS undue and unnecessary stress, frustration and disappointment.

This inadequate treatment and the negative feelings that arise from it and its consequences affect student satisfaction with the evening program offered, and more importantly impede student learning. This inadequate treatment might even be the chief explanation for the low enrollment percentage and the lower program completion ratio as compared to day time program completion. PART II: FINAL ARGUMENT ESSAY Evening degree students receive less regard from the university than day time students in that they are not able to make use of the resources – facilities and services — that are supposedly available to both day and evening students. The University of the Pacific’s lack of concern over the plight of evening degree students is apparent in the fact that the university makes no effort to address the special needs of evening degree students. These students take part in a graduate program offered by the university on the grounds that they will be able to make use of the services and facilities that are available to day time students. These services and facilities include the bookstore, the dining hall, and the campus theater, among others. The students agreed to enroll in the evening degree program secure in the knowledge that all their needs will be met, as all services and facilities extended to other students are also available to them.

The only difference between day time students and evening degree students will be the time they go to class. They were wrong. The striking difference in how the university treats day time students and evening students is best exemplified on the first day of classes. While the day time students were given a proper orientation, being shown around the campus and acquainted with the facilities and services the university offers, evening degree students were accorded an abbreviated, hasty orientation.

And since evening degree students were not given the requisite campus tour, they were at a loss as to where their classes were being held. University staff’s help proved to be unhelpful, giving vague directions that made no sense to the students, like “ the red brick building next to the other red brick building”. It should have been obvious, given that evening degree students have evening classes, that they need to know the exact locations and routes to their classes because the university does not provide proper lighting at night, and so the campus is in darkness. Further, the promised services and facilities are available – but only on weekdays at fixed hours during the day until 5 PM, when day time students abound and evening degree students are not present to take advantage of them. This is particularly frustrating and stressful, since the university offered an evening program and assured the students that the services and facilities will be available to them while enrolled in the program, meaning they will be able to avail of the services and facilities during their stay. The university knows the population of the evening program that is why it designed a program to be held at night for professional individuals who are unavailable during the day.

Yet, it seems that the university is not keen on meeting the basic needs of the evening degree students by making the promised services and facilities readily available. Further, it is not only these services and facilities that evening degree students are having problems with accessing. Evening degree students often find themselves reaching their classes’ venues locked, with no staff present to assist them in opening the room. The classrooms themselves are poorly equipped, with seats for fourth graders not graduate students, and with no white boards, overhead projectors and LCD projectors. Although there are “ smart” classrooms with these amenities, these rooms are not accessible in the evening, rendering them unavailable to evening degree students. It seems that the university fails to recognize that they are dealing with graduate students – adults, professionals – not just an average university student who happens to be attending evening classes. Evening degree students put forward money out of their day jobs for the academic program, and simply put, they are not getting their money’s worth.

Maintaining a job and studying at night does not give much time left for the evening degree student to be caught in a web of inefficiency that can be avoided in the first place if there is efficient communication between the university and the students. Delays could be prevented and precious time utilized if pertinent information regarding class schedules, classrooms, teachers, textbooks, financial records, transcripts and other academic requirements are given clearly and well-ahead of time. The University of the Pacific is a respected learning institution for post graduate education. Its poignant mission statement claims: “ the keys to Pacific’s future as a national comprehensive university lie in our core commitments to focus on students’ learning and development. ” An implicit assumption is that it aims to provide the best educational experience that it can afford to each of its students – including evening degree students. It will bring a lot of good to the academic world if the university can live up to its mission.

For now, even an attempt to respond to the basic needs of evening degree students by making services and facilities available will be a big step towards the realization of that ideal.

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