Letter to the Editor
I think UVU professors need to do away with attendance policies. This is college, and we students are paying a large sum of money to be enrolled here. Why not let the students control whether or not attending classes should be mandatory? I do not desire to have the attendance policy dropped because of any inclination to miss classes, but because during the winter semesters I get sick at least once a month. Now, every time I get sick, I miss two or three school days. Multiply that by four months in the semester and I have missed between eight to twelve days of class just being sick. I am willing to make up for any time lost, but in classes with mandatory attendance, every absence after three will drop your grade. That is a full grade lost because of my immune system! I demand a looser attendance policy for all of my immunity-weak brothers and sisters — plus it’s ski season for everyone else.
Andrew Jones
Communications
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Dear Editor-
I am writing to bring up a problem that I am sure that a lot of students share with me: based on my experiences here, some professors, I feel, are not here to teach, but rather to trick students. Are we not attending this institution to learn, not to be tricked or fooled?
I recently took a test here at the university and bombed it with flying colors. The questions on the exam were not — and I repeat — were not in any way, shape or form how my professor had presented them in the review session. Throughout the entire test I felt as if my professor was trying to trick me, trying to mock my intelligence, and each question became progressively trickier and trickier. Ever since the beginning of the semester, I have gotten the feeling that my professor revels in the fact that the class average is a staggering and dismal 60-65 for the exams. It should be more than apparent, that in a class of over 150 students, with the majority of them scoring so low on their exams, something is obviously fundamentally wrong.
I understand that my professor spent years and years honing and developing his/her craft to get to the position he/she is in. I get that, I really do; but the class of which I speak is a 1010 class. The questions on the exam were worded in such a way that I felt as if I were taking the bar exam to become a lawyer who specialized specifically in that area.
I studied and studied and studied for this particular exam; so much so that it was on my mind almost constantly, and yet the outcome was nothing near what I had hoped for as I walked into the testing center with my head held high. I walked out of the testing center disgruntled, defeated, my confidence ripped away.
Our professors should want us to succeed on exams, should want us to do well in the class, should want us to do well in life. But as sad as it is to say, that is just not the case with some professors that work at this institution.
Now, I am not na’ve enough to think that this problem is specific to UVU. I understand and I am aware that this is probably a problem at the hundreds of higher learning institutions that are in this country. However, that in no way justifies the problem or make it any less important. My plea and question is to those who feel the same way as I do: how can this problem be rectified?
Sincerely, a concerned student,
Bryson Gunter
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Dear Editor,
I would like to express my appreciation for the student housing we have at UVU; isn’t it so wonderful? Oh, wait…we don’t have student housing on campus. Why is that? I think as a university, we should have the same opportunity that other universities enjoy, the opportunity to unite our motivated, unique, creative, diverse students so that they share in the college experience of student housing on campus. Student housing would facilitate closer student and peer interactions, not just at school but in our living situations too. So many UVU students commute from all over Utah County and miss the sense of community that comes with student housing. There are, yes, apartments that are walking distance from UVU, but they are open to the public and not reserved for students (although many rooms are occupied by them). I think UVU would be an even a better school than it already is if it took that next step and created student housing.
Katelyn Gallagher
