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Written by: Mike Kearney
Last week, the Student Government Association sponsored a forum in which students were encouraged to voice their opinions and concerns regarding academics on the Bentley campus.
Although most of us would agree that Bentley encourages uncommon innovation in the classroom, students do have questions about decisions that have been made and procedures that are in place. Not all of these concerns require changes, however. In fact, a majority of them only seek an explanation.
As the semester continues, SGA will follow up regarding the concerns raised last Tuesday. It will seek to provide answers and direction to the student body through columns like this one and on our SGA website. Concerns discussed at the forum include course standardization, registration, and class size, among others.
Students are concerned that some required major and General Business courses are being taught very differently by different professors. While we understand and encourage academic freedom, students only ask that courses with common final exams devote equal time to the same content areas throughout the semester.
Another suggestion was to involve more faculty members in the process of writing common exams. That way, students with different professors will be on a more equal playing field when finals week comes around.
With respect to registration, an SGA senator raised an interesting question: Would it be possible for students to register for a year’s worth of classes at one time? If allowed to do so, it was suggested that students might be able to better plan their schedules.
Students are also wondering if anything can be done to alert them of faculty changes when they occur; some students register for a class with one professor, and over the summer or during winter break, the professor changes classes without any notice being sent to the student. These are just a few ideas that we’re interested in getting more feedback on, both from students and from faculty.
As you may know, Bentley places an emphasis on small class sizes. Student Government is committed to preserving this distinctive feature of the Bentley education while also encouraging innovation in the classroom. With your help, we will remain invested in the future of the IT 101 course and every other course offered at Bentley.
But to do that, we need your help and your ideas. Visit us online at student-organizations.bentley.edu/sga/ and post your thoughts.
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