While looking at my transcript
recently online, I couldn’t help but think that the University
Studies Program (USP) requirements of the University of Wyoming are
more than a little confusing. Although I do think the USP requirements are
important, I think that they need to be a little less strict about the
requirements.
People that are comfortable with the USP program think that an overhaul will cost too much money, take too much time and is not needed.
The USP program is run by the office
of Academic Affairs and is applicable to students of the University of Wyoming
who started after 2003. Although teachers can petition to have their classes evaluated for the USP program, I think that new and old classes should automatically be
evaluated before they are listed in the course catalog. Doing this for all
classes would save money for students in the long run by allowing teachers to
spend more time on classes and less time filling out forms for course
evaluation. The office of Academic Affairs agrees that the USP requirements
need an overhaul. According to the University Plan 3 2009-2014 released by the office
of Academic Affairs (page 11), a reevaluation of the USP program
would be “to refine assessment techniques that focus on verifiable outcomes and
minimize the time commitments of faculty members and administrators.”
When scheduling for classes,
students have to take into consideration what USP requirements they still need
and what classes will fulfill those requirements. Although the process of
looking up classes is easy, it would be easier for students if all classes were
part of the USP program to give students more options for some of the
requirements that currently have limited class possibilities. More and more
students are graduating with a lot of classes they don’t need to graduate. I feel this would be eliminated with a complete overhaul of the entire USP
program. Students shouldn’t have to pay for classes that they really
don’t need.
The current USP requirements are so
strict that students don’t have a choice but to take more classes than
they need to graduate. If more classes were evaluated, many of them have
potential to be listed as fulfilling several USP requirements instead of just
one. This would allow students to not only graduate quicker, but also save
money overall. With only having to take the classes that they need, students would be able to take fewer student loans resulting in smaller debt after graduating. Although reevaluation of the entire program would cost the
University money initially, I think it would save the school money in the long
run by eliminating the current lengthy evaluation process.
Although many people think that the
program is acceptable how it is today, I firmly believe that the USP program
needs major changes to make the college experience for students and teachers alike as positive as possible. Scheduling for classes should be an easy process, but
with the USP requirements how they are currently, it is just a big mess. Not even a glass of water and two Tylenol would fix that headache!
There are many issues with the "alphabet soup" USP requirements at the University of Wyoming. Foremost, in my mind, is that there are not enough sections offered of the required courses and we students end up paying the price by having to take whatever we can. Though, I have heard some concern about taking out the public speaking requirement, which would disappear under the proposed new guidelines.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the UW Branding Iron's story on the subject. http://www.brandingirononline.info/2012/03/22/uw-committee-wants-changes-to-education-requirements/
ReplyDeleteMy close friends and I have talked a lot about this issue and we agree that some of the classes UW requires students to take for USP credits are ridiculous. Not only are the classes irrelevant to what we want to do after college with our degrees, but we also feel that the university is doing this to keep student around longer to ultimately collect more money in student fees. It is rare when the majority of students are graduating in exactly four years nowadays.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the College Board, a year of tuition at a public college for an in-state student costs an average of $7,605.
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/college-costs/college-costs-faqs
Multiple that number by five years and the number you get is more than the majority of American families can afford. I believe students should be well-rounded citizens, but at what cost?
As a transfer student who has struggled to maximize my classes with regard to USP's, I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of the USP classes. If the USP program was revised and simplified I think it would be easier on both students and faculty. There is definitely some overlap in the system that can be beneficial to a student, but it can be difficult to find, especially with an adviser that puts in minimal effort (which has been pretty common in my experience). It's too late for a revision to be of any benefit to me, but I still hope it happens for the sake of future students.
ReplyDelete