The technique City College uses to publicize key information to students is outdated and often ineffective – and that’s a shame.
More students than ever before are on campus taking classes and using support services. But more students than ever are still clueless.
The Channels strongly urges the college to hire a liaison for the students who would properly inform them of services like on-campus tutoring and events. Failing that, the people in charge of publicizing events have to do it in a more timely manner.
We also challenge the college to revamp its Web site making it more student-friendly.
When the college dropped Rob Reilly’s position as head of the campus publication office, it kept its public information officer. But she works with agencies primarily outside the college.
Nobody has filled the internal position, and students continue to wallow in ignorance as their success rates continue to fall.
It’s typical that campus organizers call The Channels 15 minutes before an important speech or event. That’s hardly time enough for a commercial publication, let alone a student newspaper.
This college has made it a major priority to raise levels of student success. We at The Channels believe a one-stop shop with information about the dozens of support programs is crucial to this campaign.
E.O.P.S, D.S.P.S, Study Abroad, Pipeline, book buyback, scholarships and financial aid are a web of confusion, hidden in competing, often out-of-date Web sites.
The library offers access to its state-of-the-art research materials to students’ home computers, but how are students supposed to know this? The librarian told The Channels the only way he expects to publicize this is this newspaper.
There’s also tutorial labs like the math, writing, science, communication, business, foreign language, SoMA, nursing, and humanities. How do students find out about them?
Right now the “one-stop shop” is the faculty. The college expects faculty to clue-in students, but professors don’t want to be homeroom teachers and rightfully so.
Pipeline does an excellent job linking these services, but teachers are not required to use Pipeline. So, students do not check the portal regularly.
The sbcc.edu Web site, in its current form, is not a universal solution either. The site is so bogged down in bureaucracy that no students, regardless of their Web aptitude, can consistently navigate their way around it.
The Channels learned that 30 to 40 percent of students who dropped their courses this semester did not request a tuition refund. While it may be their responsibility to file for the refund, how do they know the refund is in order?
Students can get additional units by enrolling in a Work Experience 290 course, but who is here to give students that information? Counselors are partially responsible for this, but as many students have experienced, seeking aid from City College counselors is a hit or miss endeavor.
The list goes on, and on, and on.
The point is: we want to get involved. The point the college should take from this is: let us know, so we can.