Different degrees of education
By Daily Bruin Staff
June 5, 2002 9:00 p.m.
By Christina Jenkins, Kelly Rayburn,Robert Salonga and
Amanda Schapel
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
[email protected]
Thousands of students will graduate from UCLA in one week
““ some will leave, asking themselves what they will leave
with other than a piece of paper.
UCLA is a national leader in research and selects its students
from a larger applicant pool than any other university in the
country. But with its capacity filled and its resources maxed-out,
the quality of the UCLA academic experience hinges largely on
whether students pursue an education or just want a degree.
Many students said they don’t make an extra effort and
feel they will leave without a meaningful education.
“I’m graduating after four years, but I don’t
feel like I have any sort of experience going out into the real
world,” said fourth-year biology student Randip Bisla.
This sentiment is common among many outgoing Bruins. While a
substantial number of students actively engage in learning, many
give only the effort they feel is needed to get an acceptable
grade.
“I do the minimum amount of work to get by. I’d
rather not understand the homework than make the time to go (to
office hours),” said fifth-year chemical engineering student
Frank Zhang.
“(Anyone) can get a degree here,” said Susan Chang,
a fourth-year Asian American studies and classics student. “I
just don’t think a lot of people take advantage of their
education here; they just scrape by.”
Others believe a UCLA education can be challenging and rewarding
but say students must take charge and make it so.
“We need to take responsibility for our own
education,” said fourth-year student David Dahle, next
year’s Undergraduate Students Association Council
president.
Click Here to See Larger Image
Dahle juggles three majors ““ political science, sociology
and women’s studies ““ all while serving on USAC.
“Students need to take a holistic approach to their
education so they’re not just limited to the
classroom,” he said.
Judith Smith, vice provost in the College of Letters &
Science, meanwhile, said there are numerous avenues
““Â many of them established in the last few years
““Â that students can pursue if looking to make their
classroom educations as meaningful as possible.
She cited undergraduate student research opportunities and the
nearly $500,000 in scholarship money the school sets aside to help
students conduct that research.
Additionally, Smith said, many relatively new, smaller classes
““ like General Education clusters, the newly-created
“Fiat Lux” one-unit seminars and classes that fulfill
Writing II requirements ““ enrich a student’s learning
experience early in their careers at UCLA.
But one student said he knows “very few people who are
here to enrich their minds.”
“I think almost everyone here is here for the
degree,” said Jonathan Hui, a first-year graduate student in
electrical engineering, who earned an undergraduate degree from
UCLA in 2001.
Another student echoed Hui’s observation.
“People are more concerned about their grades than
actually learning what is being taught,” said third-year
political science student Khristine Guadalupe. But, she continued,
this isn’t a problem in her mind.
“It’s just society,” she said.
Graduate student Afshin Marashi, who works as a teaching
assistant for Communications 10, said societal pressure has led to
the “commercialization of education.”
“The influence of corporate interest is turning
universities into a training ground for people with specialized
expertise,” Marashi said.
Because of the increasing cost of a university education,
students don’t have the luxury of enjoying their time at
UCLA, he added.
“(Students) come in enthusiastic and leave worried about
their student loan payments. Those things have a way of stifling
student curiosity. They start to think, “˜What can I do to get
a marketable skill?'” Marashi said.
If there is a lack of intellectual curiosity among students, it
may be due to UCLA’s perceived focus on research, rather than
classroom learning.
“A lot of the professors’ focus is on reputation and
research instead of on teaching. You can tell that a lot of them
aren’t concerned about students learning,” said Jino
Han, a graduating senior in computer science and engineering.
Organismic biology, ecology and evolution professor Jay Phelan
begs to differ.
For Phelan, currently rated the most effective teacher at UCLA
by the Bruinwalk.com Professor Review ““ an informal student
survey Web site ““ research at UCLA is ultimately beneficial
to students. He said his personal research is crucial for him to be
an effective educator.
“How can I teach a class on genetics if I haven’t
designed an experiment in 10 years? You have to be doing it to
teach about it,” he said.
At the same time that Phelan supports research, he said his
primary role at UCLA is to engage students in the material he
presents and to make sure they walk away with something
meaningful.
“I was a medical student as an undergraduate, so I was
always at risk of getting bored, and I think about that when I
write lectures. I try to figure out from the material the angle on
it that makes it relevant,” Phelan said.
Another popular professor, Teofilo Ruiz, has a similar
philosophy about education.
“I am about learning. My first commitment is to
teaching,” he said.
He also wants to dispel the claim that teacher negligence fuels
student apathy about their classes.
“I give myself completely to what I do, so I expect
(students) to do so,” Ruiz said.
But not all professors make the same effort to interact with
their students.
“I’ve been turned away from office hours, and that
to me sucks,” Chang said.
All parties ““ students, faculty and administration
““Â acknowledge that UCLA is an imperfect institution, but
most also say its flaws are not fatal.
“We don’t always make decisions in our educational
planning that stretch our academic horizons ““ sometimes all
we’re trying to do is get by,” said education professor
Bruce Barbee.
But ultimately, he said, students should leave the university
with a love for knowledge.
“I hope students find that which is going to be a passion
for the rest of their lives,” he said.
