2008 Woodie Awards
Delta teachers care about students' success
This is not necessarily true at a university
Michael Hilal
Issue date: 2/25/05 Section: Opinion
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Attending Delta College I learned that instructors often care about what you're doing. The ones that I have had the opportunity to be instructed by want to know why you weren't in class if you didn't go, why an assignment wasn't completed, and what can be done to help achievement. One walks away with a feeling that these people really care and want to make sure that they assist with your success in any way. This is one feeling that can leave a student very comforted.
Once I finally made it to the point of transferring from a junior college to a four-year university it almost seems as one can almost disappear among the 20,000 other students. Even in my own program, which definitely had a smaller amount of students, I found that attention is a luxury. In some cases outside of the time in class it is almost impossible to reach some of the night instructors. They usually are very part-time and do not even live in the area. The only time many of these instructors had office hours were the 30 minutes before class.
I don't want to place too much fear in students who are transferring from Delta to a four-year university, but it can almost be frightening going from one extreme to another. The attention that one receives at Delta is much greater than what they will get from a state university, in this case.
Even when it came time for me to meet with counselor (at a state university it is mandatory this happen at least once), this was almost humorous. Because this had not been done, there had been an academic hold placed on my registration. So I followed standard procedure. I called the Communications Department and found out who my counselor was. I then contacted them and asked to set up some time and discuss my schedule, what classes I needed to take, and which were best to take before others. The counselor then proceeded to tell me that we could have the discussion over the phone. All he had to say to me was, "Make sure you take most of your prerequisites before you take your upper division courses for your major. I will release the hold."
Once I finally made it to the point of transferring from a junior college to a four-year university it almost seems as one can almost disappear among the 20,000 other students. Even in my own program, which definitely had a smaller amount of students, I found that attention is a luxury. In some cases outside of the time in class it is almost impossible to reach some of the night instructors. They usually are very part-time and do not even live in the area. The only time many of these instructors had office hours were the 30 minutes before class.
I don't want to place too much fear in students who are transferring from Delta to a four-year university, but it can almost be frightening going from one extreme to another. The attention that one receives at Delta is much greater than what they will get from a state university, in this case.
Even when it came time for me to meet with counselor (at a state university it is mandatory this happen at least once), this was almost humorous. Because this had not been done, there had been an academic hold placed on my registration. So I followed standard procedure. I called the Communications Department and found out who my counselor was. I then contacted them and asked to set up some time and discuss my schedule, what classes I needed to take, and which were best to take before others. The counselor then proceeded to tell me that we could have the discussion over the phone. All he had to say to me was, "Make sure you take most of your prerequisites before you take your upper division courses for your major. I will release the hold."