In some ways this is the best time of year. For me personally, I have had the satisfaction of receiving messages from a few former students who are graduating from their four year institutions and getting ready to move on to the next phase of their lives. That's a really gratifying part of my career; seeing students that I helped prepare go on to achieve their goals and start to change the world for the better. In addition, I get to enjoy seeing the students who are finishing up here get excited about moving to the next school and the next challenge. Sometimes they're scared about the future but I have enough perspective and I know them well enough to know that they'll do well at their transfer institutions as long as they don't forget the lessons they learned here about hard work and focusing on academic priorities.
For many though this is a very stressful part of the year. Some students are trying very hard to salvage a year that held a lot of promise but hasn't turned out as well as they had hoped. There's a lot of pressure on them to climb out of some hole or another they've dug for themselves. For others they're trying to deal with the disappointment and grief that comes from failed dreams. They came here hoping to do well and they know that for whatever reason they have failed to achieve that goal. Some will spend time coming to terms with this failure and will earn and grow from it. We'll see those students again in the future after they've cleaned up their mess and reorganized their priorities. Others are still in denial or have given up hope. These are the students who have stopped coming to class and have become problems in the dorms and apartment complexes around town. It's sad to see them flail about thinking that they have nothing left to lose when they have so much to lose from their short-sightedness.
Finally, this is a time for transition. Already we are preparing for the first New Student Orientations here for next fall's incoming students. Just after my final grades are turned in with the triumph and frustration they will represent, I'll see a batch of new students with hopes and dreams and expectations. So many of these will not line up with reality. I wish there was some way we could get some graduating students to encapsulate their experiences in a way that could be communicated to our new, incoming students. The problem is that every time we try, it seems that the students we select want to talk about where the best parties are and who to take and who not to take for classes based on what's easy instead of what's being learned. Sometimes it seem like those who end up in our student leadership positions don't understand the responsibility they have to represent the College and its mission. For some reason, the sophomores that see this don't volunteer to speak and the one's who don't want to recruit as many new students to their limited way of seeing and thinking as possible.
As further evidence of the yearly transition taking place, as we are concluding this year's business on the Faculty Senate I'm in the process of getting my Cabinet together for next year. As one one set of issues in resolved for the time being, there are new issues beginning to become visible on the horizon. Will the College really grow at the rate some are suggesting; from 3500 to 8500 in the next 5-10 years? If it does, how will we manage the growth from a physical plant perspective (classrooms, housing, dining facilities, local community support, etc.)? How will we insure that the faculty will have a strong voice during this period of rapid change? How will we insure that students have continued access to high quality instruction and relevant student activities? How will we create a strong sense of what our College is? Will we become a McCollege with little to distinguish us from 100's or even thousands of similar institutions? Will we become another Atlanta Metro area commodity that is consumed and forgotten like yesterday's Big Mac or will we be able to become something that is considered a resource, an opportunity and a treasure by those with whom we interact?
In this time of endings and transitions, I find my mind turning to these sorts of questions.
Thanks for Reading.
Labels: School, Students, Transitions
