This is just a quick summary of a few circumstances that I wish were a bit different, and I have been meaning to share for quite some time, actually. What I would first like to cover is the Education program. I am an Education major, and as an Education student, I am required to complete Practicum hours, which means that I observe a classroom each semester, and it really puts me at a severe disadvantage. Despite the hours that I put into that each week, I only get one to two credits (two for Block 3, since that is either a full day or two half-days, unlike Blocks 1 and 2, which are only one half-day), instead of the full three. What that means is that unless I kill myself by taking six courses, I am not getting the full fifteen credits that I should be getting, and I’m sure that I’m not the only Education student who feels this way.

Last semester was okay, because I got two credits for my Practicum, and I got four credits for my ADO 310 class, so it worked out to fifteen, but usually it doesn’t. Considering how many hours are put into completing a Practicum assignment, a full three credits should be given (more for third block). I feel like I’m busier than most students probably are, yet I’m getting less credits. Tell me, how is that fair? It isn’t fair.

Secondly, did anyone else receive an email over the summer telling you that your financial aid package had been slightly decreased due to the need to cut budgets? I did, and I was also reprimanded for having ordered too much last semester via ILLIAD, for the same reason. Allow me to entertain this question for a minute – if all of these budget cuts are necessary, then where is the money coming from to build this new science building? Where did the money come from to build the Village, something that was utterly unnecessary and isn’t even close to anything on campus. If we had that money, why didn’t we use it more productively, like put air-conditioning in the residence halls and the academic building, perhaps? I just feel like I am being affected for reasons that don’t affect me. I am not living in the townhouses, and I most likely won’t be here when the science building is finished (and even if I were, I’m not a science major). Anyway, enough moaning for now, I suppose. I’m sorry about that; I have just been meaning to write this for a while now.