Come on OSU USG, do your job

For those of you who do not know, Chancellor Fingerhut has decided that it is time to make all public schools in Ohio switch over to a common schedule. Instead of making the smaller schools change, the Board of Regents decided that it was high time to make tOSU change their schedule. If everything goes as planned, OSU will change from semesters to quarters in 2012, using a process that will take 4 years. Well, they say that it will take four years...



For obvious reasons, I have a big issue with this concept. Why the hell should tOSU be the school changing, why not all the others in the state? I mean, aren't we the biggest schools, doesn't that mean we are doing something right? We are a Democracy (I know that we are not, ignore that part) and thus we should go by vote. If the biggest school in the COUNTRY keeps getting huge people it is probably because they are doing something right. Our biggest difference is that we are quarters, so we can safely assume that that is why...

Furthermore, I see no plan to make sure that the system is done without harming students. How does the university expect to switch calendar systems without screwing over the 4 years of students that will be hit by it. Students plan their entire college carrier. Some need to work around work, some have sports, and others have grand plans for when they take each class. This change will kill that for those four years. It also will cost kids credits, as they took 151 when a freshman and planned on taking 152 as a sophomore. Nope, not any more, now they need to take the combined class, repeating their 151. There is no way to implement this without harming the kids.

Taking it a step further, where are the plans for the overall change? How can the university have a vote on okaying a change without an overall plan. Are they phasing in classes, in an attempt to keep from screwing kids but costing them money? Or is it all at once? How do the professors feel about it? There is no general plan, and OSU needs one before they act on this. Unless OSU has a plan, we should never okay a change.

Additionally, the lose of $10 million (min) simply to change a calendar is absurd.

Now, on Thursday, the Senate of OSU will be voting on if they should okay this proposal or not. My issue is that they are voting on something without a full plan there. There has been no real student input, no real plan, and no good reason for the switch. Just because Gee and Fingerhut want to do something doesn't mean that we should. I am hoping that the Senate stands up and votes against this proposal.

The job of the Senate is to make sure that the students have a voice, and that they are protected. If the Senate votes to okay this, then they are not doing their job.

On an ending note, Why has there been no study on this and the student's views?
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