Brown: Cutting learning communities unfortunate but right choice

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The University is eliminating learning communities in an effort to meet budget cuts mandated by the state. Any budget cut to higher education is unfortunate and should be avoided; however, with the current economy the University is forced to take these drastic measures.

A learning community consists of a group of students enrolled in the same core classes who usually meet for a seminar once a week. Learning communities are meant to help students (usually freshmen) adjust to college and give students resources to succeed in college academics. The goals of learning communities seem simple achievable and beneficial; however, these goals are not always met.

I participated in a Latin American Studies learning community the first semester of my freshman year. The learning community had me enrolled in Elementary Spanish I and Comparative Politics. Because these classes were held at several different times, nobody from my learning community had enrolled in the same time slots as I did. Therefore, I did not have a core group of students to study and discuss with, and consequently I did not feel the once-a-week seminar was helpful. Moreover, I felt my experience in a learning community was simply a waste of my time.

I realize my experience does not represent all learning communities. My experience simply illustrates a system that was not fine-tuned to reach all its goals. Unfortunately, because of these mistakes, I did not benefit from my involvement in a learning community.

Any budget cut in the realm of academics will hurt several people. Nobody wants to see programs cut and faculty laid off. Unfortunately this is our reality and we must face this crisis. I hope the University will be able to bring learning communities back in the future and will be able to work out the small problems in order to make them more beneficial for all students involved.

— Brown is a Wichita sophomore in journalism and political science.

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