More faculty needed to address student concerns
In a meeting called by President Kermit L. Hall Nov. 15, the Associated Students of Utah State University met with USU faculty, deans and administrators to voice concerns and opinions as they relate to the 2000 freshman survey.
They discussed ways to improve freshman retention, graduation and campus life.
As part of his compact planning, one of the biggest concerns for President Hall is the retention of freshman students. After their first year, 66 percent of students return to USU. Members of ASUSU said one of the problems freshmen face is their general education classes fill up quickly.
“I’m now spending my senior year taking freshman and sophomore classes that were filled up my first two years,” said ASUSU Activities Vice President Andy Dilley.
Another major problem is the language barrier of professors teaching many first-year courses.
“I’m not good at math,” Dilley said. “My freshman year I had a math class where the professor could barely say ‘algebra,’ so it was difficult for her to answer our questions and properly teach us.”
Poor advising and other problems plaguing freshmen have created a bad name for USU, President Hall said.
On a trip to the Utah Legislature earlier this month, President Hall met three legislators with complaints about USU. One had a complaint about their child’s encounter with poor advising, another about the language barrier of math professors, and the third stated overall that their daughter’s degree from USU was worthless, President Hall said.
“It makes it difficult when these are the people who make our funding decisions,” President Hall said. “It gives you something to think about.”
Causing many of these problems is a lack of faculty, USU Public Relations director John DeVilbiss said. At 23-to-1, USU has the highest faculty to student ratio among Utah universities. Schools like University of Utah have an 18-1 ratio, DeVilbiss said.
“One of the only ways we can have the funds to hire more faculty would be to raise tuition,” DeVilbiss said.
Following the initial release of the survey results, administrators realized the need for more faculty and raised tuition 3.5 percent, or $34, starting the summer 2001 semester. This raise in tuition gave USU an increased budget of $1 million a year, most of which has been spent on hiring more advisers. This money has provided for 15 to 20 additional peer advisers, plus five more advisers, including those specializing in transfer students, business and science, Assistant Provost Sydney Peterson said.
A matching contribution of $1 million by the Utah Legislature next year will provide for the hiring of more permanent faculty. At the request of Gov. Mike Leavitt, more engineering and computer science positions will be created. Funds will also be used to create five additional positions throughout the university to reduce class size in specific areas, Peterson said.
Although none of the nearly $2 million will be spent to accommodate English 1010 courses, USU administrators have responded to student concerns in the survey by using emergency funds to create seven additional sections during spring semester for English 1010, Peterson said.
By hiring new faculty, administrators are on the way to correcting many of the problems facing students. Dilley said he thinks more can be done.
“I would like to see the faculty go through a more rigorous hiring process,” Dilley said. “We need the faculty that will help students. We need the best.”