Editorial written by Prof. Thomas Wellock, History Dept. Emphasis added by Bob Ota Today's the first day of courses at CWU, so I'm devoting this column to the quality of education on campus. You have no doubt heard of the statistic that the income of college graduates rapidly outpaces their less educated peers. It has led many wavering high school students to give college a try. Lately, the value of a college degree has been called into question for students who struggle in high school, a significant percentage of our student body. For those who graduate in the bottom 40% of their high school class, the odds against them completing college are 2 to 1. Even if they graduate, most of them won't find employment that requires a college degree, and their employers will grumble about their basic skills, especially in oral and written communication. Colleges take their tuition money but leave these students with mortgage-sized debts and no future. There is a value in institutions that have a generous admissions policy like CWUs. We offer less advanced students a second chance and many succeed with it. But they need help to overcome their lack of preparation and, more importantly, poor work habits. In both areas, we are failing them with low expectations. This isn't just the opinion of a cranky professor; our students tell us this is so. The National Survey of Student Engagement polls freshman and seniors at most of America's colleges regarding their college experiences. Compared to our peer institutions, CWU students do less studying (the majority less than 10 hours per week!), campus activities, employment, and family responsibilities. What are they doing with all that spare time? The survey reports that CWU students excel at socializing, watching TV, playing video games, and partying. Our students aren't dropping out because they are over worked and can�'t hack it, and those who graduate enter the working world having spent more time on an Xbox than their studies. Why don't they work harder? They don't need to. We have created a system that goes easy on students. There are many reasons for this, but today I'll discuss general education courses. General education courses aim to provide a well-rounded education, but have become a way of mining students for scarce resources. In general education, students choose from a menu of classes in the sciences, humanities, and arts. While creating a marketplace of ideas sounds good, it encourages mediocrity when coupled with a student's inclination to find the easiest path to a degree. Departments make students, and administrators happy when they create large, easy courses with little grading. Students flock to these courses, and administrators reward departments with resources for their efficiency in filling seats. Students are aided and abetted in their search for the easy A by staff advisors. The well-meaning staffers no doubt want to boost retention rates, but this has a corrosive effect on quality. ...

1. Editorial written by Prof. Thomas Wellock, History Dept.
Emphasis added by Bob Ota
Today's the first day of courses at CWU, so I'm devoting this
column to the quality of education on campus. You have no
doubt heard of the statistic that the income of college graduates
rapidly outpaces their less educated peers. It has led many
wavering high school students to give college a try.
Lately, the value of a college degree has been called into
question for students who struggle in high school, a significant
percentage of our student body. For those who graduate in the
bottom 40% of their high school class, the odds against them
completing college are 2 to 1. Even if they graduate, most of
them won't find employment that requires a college degree, and
their employers will grumble about their basic skills, especially
in oral and written communication. Colleges take their tuition
money but leave these students with mortgage-sized debts and
no future.
There is a value in institutions that have a generous admissions
policy like CWUs. We offer less advanced students a second
chance and many succeed with it. But they need help to
overcome their lack of preparation and, more importantly, poor
work habits. In both areas, we are failing them with low
expectations.
This isn't just the opinion of a cranky professor; our students
tell us this is so. The National Survey of Student Engagement
polls freshman and seniors at most of America's colleges
regarding their college experiences. Compared to our peer
institutions, CWU students do less studying (the majority less
than 10 hours per week!), campus activities, employment, and
family responsibilities. What are they doing with all that spare

2. time? The survey reports that CWU students excel at
socializing, watching TV, playing video games, and partying.
Our students aren't dropping out because they are over worked
and can�'t hack it, and those who graduate enter the working
world having spent more time on an Xbox than their studies.
Why don't they work harder? They don't need to. We have
created a system that goes easy on students. There are many
reasons for this, but today I'll discuss general education
courses.
General education courses aim to provide a well-rounded
education, but have become a way of mining students for scarce
resources. In general education, students choose from a menu of
classes in the sciences, humanities, and arts. While creating a
marketplace of ideas sounds good, it encourages mediocrity
when coupled with a student's inclination to find the easiest
path to a degree. Departments make students, and administrators
happy when they create large, easy courses with little grading.
Students flock to these courses, and administrators reward
departments with resources for their efficiency in filling seats.
Students are aided and abetted in their search for the easy A by
staff advisors. The well-meaning staffers no doubt want to boost
retention rates, but this has a corrosive effect on quality. As a
result, challenging classes with multiple assignments are
discouraged with low enrollments, fewer resources, and more
grading for the faculty.
It's a Darwinian struggle in reverse where the less fit courses
survive and flourish. Many general education courses eliminate
writing assignments and oral presentations altogether. In a
pathetic move to raise standards, we created writing courses but
the faculty chopped down the requirement to only seven pages.
This isn't college-level work. As one colleague whose high-
school daughter took courses on campus sarcastically

3. commented, CWU provided her with an excellent high school
education.
Fortunately, the faculty are attempting a revision of the general
education program to include more essential skill development.
But this means devoting more resources to instruction, a slice of
the university budget pie that has shrunk under the current
administration.� Passing serious reform will no doubt hurt
some department budgets, but it will hurt the students even
more if we don't.
By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY
Nearly half of the nation's undergraduates show almost no gains
in learning in their first two years of college, in large part
because colleges don't make academics a priority, a new report
shows.
Instructors tend to be more focused on their own faculty
research than teaching younger students, who in turn are more
tuned in to their social lives, according to the report, based on a
book titled Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College
Campuses. Findings are based on transcripts and surveys of
more than 3,000 full-time traditional-age students on 29
campuses nationwide, along with their results on the Collegiate
Learning Assessment, a standardized test that gauges students'
critical thinking, analytic reasoning and writing skills.
After two years in college, 45% of students showed no
significant gains in learning; after four years, 36% showed little
change.
Students also spent 50% less time studying compared with
students a few decades ago, the research shows.
"These are really kind of shocking, disturbing numbers," says
New York University professor Richard Arum, lead author of
the book, published by the University of Chicago Press.
He noted that students in the study, on average, earned a 3.2

4. grade-point average. "Students are able to navigate through the
system quite well with little effort," Arum said.
COLLEGE: Can students learn as well on iPads, e-books?
The Department of Education and Congress in recent years have
looked for ways to hold colleges and universities accountable
for student learning, but researchers say that federal
intervention would be counterproductive.
"We can hope that the (new research) encourages rather than
discourages college faculty to learn more about what works in
terms of fostering higher levels of student learning," said
George Kuh of the Center for Postsecondary Research at
Indiana University.
Charles Blaich, director of the Higher Education Data Sharing
Consortium, used by 130 private colleges to improve education
quality, said he thinks colleges are aware of the shortcomings
but are trying to improve.
"I wouldn't want to create the impression that schools are blind
to this," he said.
Other details in the research:
•35% of students report spending five or fewer hours per week
studying alone. Yet, despite an "ever-growing emphasis" on
study groups and collaborative projects, students who study in
groups tend to have lower gains in learning.
•50% said they never took a class in a typical semester where
they wrote more than 20 pages; 32% never took a course in a
typical semester where they read more than 40 pages per week.