I attended my kid sister's graduation this afternoon, and I have to say it was quite an ordeal. Although it brought back memories of my own graduation in 2002, I wondered if mine was as painful as this one. Graduation is supposed to be for the students, and they seemed to be more like a footnote than the actual message.
Since when did graduation become a time for the administration to pat themselves on the back? They spent ninety minutes of the ordeal giving awards to citizens in the community, awarding honorary degrees, and pontificating about how great UNLV is. Don't get me wrong, I like UNLV, but if the president of the university really thinks that "no public university has done more for students than UNLV" he has another thing coming. This type of activity would be best reserved for a private ceremony or maybe a press conference where they could invite the media and people who care instead of forcing the families of 1400 students, which included myriads of young children, to sit there and listen to them babel on.
Who picks the people who give the commencement addresses? The undergraduate speaker compared life to a casino. While appropriate for the metropolitan area, it was grossly inappropriate for the audience and a poor analogy when other more relevant options might be chosen. The graduate speaker misattributed his success to UNLV. Sorry sir, but it was the Army and that drill sergeant of whom you spoke who turned your life around and saved you from the gutter and not the faculty. He got you out. UNLV gave you a new direction.
No matter how much they pat themselves on the back, faculty are not in the end responsible for student success. The university doesn't "give" diplomas. It awards them to students who earned them. Everyone here seems to forget that we get paid to teach. The students pay us to give them information, and the diploma attests to competancy in subjects, not to our skills as educators. Yet, it seems to me now that I am graduated that graduation is an excuse for faculty to festoon themselves in black robes and parade around with puffed-out chests and act like they are great. I didn't come to see them. I came to see my sister walk and a few of her friends that I've come to know over the last three years.
If I were in charge, and my sister begged me not to every be, I would make a few other changes. Since this is the first time for undergraduates, I would either not make them wait until last or give them their own separate ceremony. Was it not taught that the greatest among you should be your servants? Then why do we spend so much time on the graduate students? What's more, they processed the undergraduates in 35 minutes giving them hardly enough time to clear the spot where a photo was shot before the next person walked up. Bad form. All in all, the undergraduate portion was 1/6th the total time spent in the arena, and if that's why we came, it should have been the major time block and not a minor one.
On the whole, I am disappointed with attitudes. Clearly the administration has it backwards about why we exist and why we hold graduation. They spoke about how it was a "celebration" for those who had finally made it. They spoke how UNLV had "taken a chance on the students". What arrogant hubris! Students paid us money. We gave them information. They demonstrated mastery, and we gave them a diploma in return. They earned it. Many of them would have in spite of the faculty.
Mr. President, academics is not "one part of what we do here" it is the major part. It is why we exist. We can exist without sports programs, research, and the like, but if nobody pays to take our classes, then it doesn't matter how good our faculty are, how well our teams play or what our research generates. Without customers, we have no revenue, and you sir become completely irrelevant.
Focus on the students. That's one thing that's wrong with education in Nevada.
Since when did graduation become a time for the administration to pat themselves on the back? They spent ninety minutes of the ordeal giving awards to citizens in the community, awarding honorary degrees, and pontificating about how great UNLV is. Don't get me wrong, I like UNLV, but if the president of the university really thinks that "no public university has done more for students than UNLV" he has another thing coming. This type of activity would be best reserved for a private ceremony or maybe a press conference where they could invite the media and people who care instead of forcing the families of 1400 students, which included myriads of young children, to sit there and listen to them babel on.
Who picks the people who give the commencement addresses? The undergraduate speaker compared life to a casino. While appropriate for the metropolitan area, it was grossly inappropriate for the audience and a poor analogy when other more relevant options might be chosen. The graduate speaker misattributed his success to UNLV. Sorry sir, but it was the Army and that drill sergeant of whom you spoke who turned your life around and saved you from the gutter and not the faculty. He got you out. UNLV gave you a new direction.
No matter how much they pat themselves on the back, faculty are not in the end responsible for student success. The university doesn't "give" diplomas. It awards them to students who earned them. Everyone here seems to forget that we get paid to teach. The students pay us to give them information, and the diploma attests to competancy in subjects, not to our skills as educators. Yet, it seems to me now that I am graduated that graduation is an excuse for faculty to festoon themselves in black robes and parade around with puffed-out chests and act like they are great. I didn't come to see them. I came to see my sister walk and a few of her friends that I've come to know over the last three years.
If I were in charge, and my sister begged me not to every be, I would make a few other changes. Since this is the first time for undergraduates, I would either not make them wait until last or give them their own separate ceremony. Was it not taught that the greatest among you should be your servants? Then why do we spend so much time on the graduate students? What's more, they processed the undergraduates in 35 minutes giving them hardly enough time to clear the spot where a photo was shot before the next person walked up. Bad form. All in all, the undergraduate portion was 1/6th the total time spent in the arena, and if that's why we came, it should have been the major time block and not a minor one.
On the whole, I am disappointed with attitudes. Clearly the administration has it backwards about why we exist and why we hold graduation. They spoke about how it was a "celebration" for those who had finally made it. They spoke how UNLV had "taken a chance on the students". What arrogant hubris! Students paid us money. We gave them information. They demonstrated mastery, and we gave them a diploma in return. They earned it. Many of them would have in spite of the faculty.
Mr. President, academics is not "one part of what we do here" it is the major part. It is why we exist. We can exist without sports programs, research, and the like, but if nobody pays to take our classes, then it doesn't matter how good our faculty are, how well our teams play or what our research generates. Without customers, we have no revenue, and you sir become completely irrelevant.
Focus on the students. That's one thing that's wrong with education in Nevada.
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