So, I’m writing this at 10 p.m. Tuesday night (I know, I know, I procrastinated again on this one). But let me start off this week by saying, I’m tired, I’m stressed out and I hate numbers, and this week I am forced to talk about numbers. You have been forewarned, buckle up, it may get bumpy.
The NUPulse survey is probably on the presses as I type and will be available throughout campus by the end of this week, but I am bringing you this vital info before it is available to everyone else. You feel privileged, right?
Good. But I must say I owe it all to the Director of University Communications Ed Klotzbier, the Director of University Planning and Research Mark Putnam and the Director for Institutional Research Marge Wiseman. They helped make this possible, and I appreciate it. And, I’ll have you know I was impressed by Ms. Wiseman. Not only does she crunch numbers for a living, she had to crunch semester conversion numbers. Meanwhile, she still maintained her sense of humor, which I must say, I admire greatly. After two quarters of this stuff, I think I may be losing either my sense of humor or my mind. I’m not sure which will go first.
Alright, back to the issue at hand. Basically the results are not shocking. The juniors and middlers are more informed than the sophomores and freshman in terms of academic advising, with 68 percent of juniors having already met with an advisor, whereas 70 percent of freshman have not. This is not a secret, more effort has been put into clearing rising juniors for graduation and getting middlers in so they can plan ahead for the upcoming fall semester.
In terms of perception of the conversion as a whole, the freshman class is the most accepting of the switch, which makes logical sense if you think about it, they are the ones who have experienced quarters less. Juniors are also concerned that semester conversion will hurt their ability to graduate on time, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the 40 percent who feel the conversion will push back their graduation date are also the ones who have yet to meet with their advisor.
One interesting aspect of the survey, which I myself was quite excited about was the fact that in terms of where students get their information, The Northeastern News was a popular choice. AND students found it useful! The majority of students, over 70 percent for the middlers and juniors found The News “somewhat useful.” It isn’t the number one choice, but I’ll take it. You have no idea how happy I was. I finally felt that there is some purpose to this damn column and an added bonus, people actually read it, who would have thought?
Enough of tooting my own horn, back to the survey.
I was alarmed when I glanced at one statement, “It is important to me to have a co-op placement in my senior year.” Seventy percent of freshman, 57 percent of sophomores, 55 percent of middlers and 46 percent of juniors said yes. Sorry to burst your bubble, but there is a great likely hood that the majority of those students will not be able to go on co-op their senior year and if they do, they probably will not find a job.
Why?
Commencement is set for May 1 next year and April 30 in 2005. My point? No senior will be able to go on co-op on the “spring rotation” which encompasses spring semester and the summer 1 mini semester, which ends in mid-June, not May 1.
This, my friends, could create a very large problem. If you think the job market is awful now, imagine what it will be like if every single senior is forced to go on co-op at the same time and then add into the mix the other student who are normally on that rotation. It spells trouble.
Don’t get me wrong. My job is to point out flaws, to be critical but yet remain objective. Here is my objective view on the survey. The university is in good shape overall. Freshmen and sophomores have an idea of what is going on and they aren’t panicking – and they shouldn’t be, at least not yet. Juniors, for the most part, are in the clear. Most know what they need to do in order to walk down that center aisle of the FleetCenter on May 1, 2004. It is the middlers that need to kick it into high gear.
Academic advising is essential, but as this survey shows, co-op is equally important. For the majority students, financial advising will be the clincher. Without additional funding, many Northeastern students will not be able to remain students here.
In this instance, I believe the numbers do not lie. I think it is essential for every member of the Northeastern community to at least glance at the data to get a better idea as to where the university is heading in terms of the conversion. For the administration, in between your meetings with one another, read the data. If you are confused, stop a student on the way to your next meeting and ask, “Is this true? Have YOU gone to see your advisor?”
To the students, do not become one of the soon-to-be statistics of those who were unaware that they had to change their co-op rotation their senior year, or who were unaware of new graduation requirements or students who lost their financial aid because they neglected to meet with an advisor.
The numbers are in. Do you know where you fall?
Questions? Heather Allen can be reached at
