Saturday, August 20, 2011

Well, It Would Have Been Nice...

...if I could have done all this when I was a freshman at Iowa. I guess Mary Sue Coleman wasn't down with the solidarity, 'let's all explore our identity as the Class of 2015' type of thing. It kind of blew my mind last year when they started doing this On Iowa! business (or upping the Weeks of Welcome stuff- I don't know if they were calling it On Iowa! last year) that they made all the new frosh go. It's required. The wifey mentioned that they needed a medical excuse to get out of it!

Isn't that wild? We were all kind of dumped into the college experience and left to fend for ourselves in the brutal realities of the cold, hard world. We all figured it out- and I took advantage of the excellent Courses In Common option for the first semester to make a few friendships that still stick with me today.

I guess this is that writ large- especially since it was in Kinnick. It's not the worst idea in the world- and as Iowa and the rest of the state universities are seeing upticks in enrollment, they have the luxury of doing whatever the heck they want, I guess.

The cynic in me has to point out that 10 years from now, higher ed is going to be- or should be a lot leaner, meaner and more to the point, cheaper for people- whether it's through draconian cuts when the costs of college crash the 'market' for higher ed or whether it's through forward thinking schools trying to stay ahead of that curve, change is coming. Some conversations on how to hold down costs would be nice to hear from Our Glorious Leader and his Republicrat Minions in Des Moines. Not to mention dear old Sally and the Board of Regents.

No comments:

Post a Comment