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[Austin Shin]

The following appeared in a petition presented by Classen University students to the school’s administration.

 

“the purpose of higher education is to prepare students for the future, but Classen students are at a serious disadvantage in the competition for post-college employment due to the University’s burdensome breadth requirements. Classen’s job placement rate is substantially lower than placement rates of many top-ranked schools. Classen students would be more attractive to employers if they had more time to take advanced courses in their specialty, rather than being required to spend 15% percent of their time at Classen taking courses outside of their subject area. We demand, therefore, that the university abandon or drastically cut back on its breadth requirements.”

 

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One of the most fundamental reasons students go to college is to earn a degree in a field they love working in so that after graduation, they can find a job that will allow them to do what they love. Classen University appears to strive to achieve this exact same goal of employment for its students, and the problem has been attributed to the school’s seemingly absurd breadth requirements. However, there are three key flaws in the petition’s argument that should help other readers and the writer of this petition to step back and understand that the low post-graduation rate is a more complex problem that has more issues than just the school’s breadth requirements.

 

The first flaw is that the petition makes the assumption that the only way a student can more easily find a job is through taking more advanced courses. This is an unsupported argument since the petition only makes the claim that the student would be more attractive to employers without giving any real evidence for it. In addition, there are several other factors that boost one’s chances of employment. One factor is what one does over the summers between school years. If a student did absolutely nothing for the three summers he or she had in college, then that would most likely hurt his or her chances of employment because that shows lack of initiative and no willingness to advance one’s technical skills or experiences. In addition, another factor is the connections a student is willing to make with alumni or other company representatives. Many times, schools have career fairs, which students should take advantage of. This allows the student to interact with employees of other companies, submit resumes, and even interview for a position right then and there. Through these two factors, it can be shown that there are several other factors, which can hurt and advance one’s chances of employment, and the lack of advanced courses one has taken can easily be compensated.

 

The second flaw is that the petition also assumes that the only mistake the school is making that is contributing to this low-employment rate is the breadth requirement. However, there are several other institutional possibilities that may be contributing to this problem. The first hypothesis is that the school’s career services office may not be performing satisfactorily. The job of a career services office is to provide students with a streamlined resource that they can access readily in order to apply to job positions and interact with companies. The office also should look over students’ resumes, encourage students to look for full-time jobs early on in college, and motivate them with reasons as to why attaining a job after college would be very great. This office by itself has a huge impact on the decisions students are making, and so with a poorly functioning office, the post-college employment would most certainly be very low. Another hypothesis is that the school’s education is simply not top-notch. This means that because of the subpar education the students receive, they are not able to perform adequately when faced with interview questions or when interning at a company. The lack of a proper education would imply that these students are not equipped with the necessary skills in order to succeed after college. As a result, this would only make finding employment even harder.

 

The last flaw is that the comparison of Classen University to top-ranked schools in terms of employment may not be an appropriate comparison. The first issue with this comparison is that there is no mention of Classen University being a top-ranked school. In the likelihood that it is not a top-ranked school, then there is no reason for a subpar school to have a success rate equal to that of a top-ranked school. The different in employment rates would therefore be justified. In addition, just because a university becomes a top-ranked school does not mean that it is guaranteed to have a high post-college employment rate. Because of this lack of correlation, this comparison to top-ranked schools is actually not necessary. Each school usually has a few specific fields that they are great at, and if those fields happen to be Computer Science or Engineering, then it would make sense as to why that school has a high employment rate. In today’s society, those technical fields are in high demand. But if the school specialized in history or English, based on supply and demand, the post-college employment rate would not be as high. Classen University therefore should not worry about being compared with top-ranked schools.

 

Although Classen University does have a low post-college employment rate, eradicating the breadth requirement would not be the solution the college is looking for. The petition fails to explore several other possible mistakes the school may be committing, and without this exploration, the school should not take any drastic measure to its course curriculum. Although coursework is undoubtedly important to a student’s ability to succeed, it is not the only factor that will bring about this success. After a few more years of extensive analysis of other aspects of the school, then certain changes should be made to slowly improve the school’s post-college employment rate.

[loganmills]

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