Being a senior is scary. Whether you’re a fourth-year, a fifth-year, or a super-super senior like me, trying to figure out those last few classes and the big questioning void that comes after graduation can be more than intimidating. It’s exciting, but still intimidating.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the budget crisis definitely is helping. Before I left to study abroad for a year, I was nervous to graduate, get a job, join the ranks of wage-earners and move to Europe. Now I feel like I’m trying to abandon a sinking ship.
I’m sure education in California will pull through, but right now news has been pretty grim: no classes at Cuesta for summer, cut funding at Poly. My friends are getting turned away from double-majors and even minors. Seniors are getting mysterious e-mails that give them registration priority. My professors all get Fridays “off.”
The more I interview students and professors, the more I realize that this feeling of educational distress is mutual. Sixth-year Ian Muir, a fellow super-senior I interviewed about the budget cuts, said he had to almost literally stick his foot in the door to keep “them” from shutting it.
He realized part-way through that he wasn’t happy with his materials engineering major, and wanted to up his biology minor. The problem was, it would take another year.
“You really have to take them by the horns sometimes, and you don’t want to create too much of a ruckus, but sometimes it’s necessary to get what you need,” he said.
In Muir’s case, what he needed was a double major so he could graduate into a field he really wanted to work in.
“Since I’ve been a double major, I’ve had to actively fight Cal Poly,” Muir said. “They want you to be done.”
Business marketing senior Eric O’Brien echoed the concerns of other students I interviewed when he said, “I don’t see how they can say, ‘No, your education is not your right.’”
On the other hand, we’re not paying for our education, or at least, not all of it.
Assistant accounting professor Rodney P. Mock said he thinks there’s a general lack of public knowledge, a disconnect, over how CSU students are actually funded. In reality, the state subsidizes a portion of tuition.
So the smaller budget means less classes for everyone, and just that much more incentive for seniors like me to graduate. Which means I’m just that much closer to moving back to Europe.
Perhaps it’s not all bad.
This article is full of hasty generalizations, red herrings, and non-sequiturs. The author makes the claim that students (super seniors in particular) aren’t graduating due to the budget crisis. This could potentially be a good argument, however, through out the article, the author jumps from different topics, attempting to prove her point, but failing to support her initial claim. She took quotes from only two or three students that are fifth and sixth years, and are still having trouble graduating, and made the hasty generalization that what is happening to them, is happening to all Cal Poly students. The author also makes the statement, “we’re not paying for education, or at least not all of it.” This is another hasty generalization to assume that is the case for all Cal Poly students, especially since she has no statistical evidence to back her statement up. In the third paragraph the author wrote, “I’m sure education in California will pull through, but right now news has been pretty grim: no classes at Cuesta for summer, cut funding at Poly. My friends are getting turned away from double-majors and even minors. Seniors are getting mysterious e-mails that give them registration priority. My professors all get Fridays “off.”” That one paragraph alone is full of hasty generalization, assuming that just because of the few experiences her and her friend’s have had, “California’s education is currently pretty grim.” Where is her hard evidence for all of these claims she is making? Vasquez also wrote, “fortunately or unfortunately, the budget crisis definitely is helping. Before I left to study abroad for a year, I was nervous to graduate, get a job, join the ranks of wage earners and move to Europe. Now I feel like I’m trying to abandon a sinking ship.” This is a red herring and non sequitur, because right before this statement, Vasquez was talking about how graduating can be exciting but intimidating, then sends our attention in a totally different direction. As a reader I was thrown off when Vasquez randomly mentioned the budget crisis and then follows her statement up by talking about her feelings before and after her study abroad trip. Basically this entire article is full of non sequiturs from the standpoint the author skips around from one topic to the next, never clearly connecting any of her ideas. As a reader, it’s difficult to grasp the main points the author is trying to make, that is, if there even are any.
This article contains many logical fallacies such as non sequitur, oversimplification, red herring, and hasty generalizations. The first logical fallacy that I noticed was a non sequitur, stating that most 5th or 6th year seniors are not graduating because there is a budget crisis. It seems like there are a few steps missing in this argument, and possible the fact that the students have not planned their schedules out well enough to graduate in four years. I think that it is an oversimplification to say that students are not graduating in four years is due directly to the budget cuts. I think that many other conditions are adding to this such as overcrowding, and many students don’t want class on Friday, and another big reason is most students do not want to graduate and leave their college lifestyle. The author faults to a hast generalization only using a few students as examples that are restricted to very competitive majors, which does not give a true understanding of most students situations. Lastly the author uses Red Herring throughout the article. In the third paragraph Vasquez refers to Cuesta Community College summer program, which does not directly correlate with the graduation of most Cal Poly students. I think that Vasquez may have a point in that with the budget cuts with CSU it does make it harder to graduate in the traditional four year setting, but she could use some more factual data in her article.