As we return from our winter vacations, the readjustment to life at school is taking affect. New classes to prepare for, new professors to get use to and new books to never crack open. All of these pale in comparison to tackling all of our New Year’s resolutions.
Every year I tackle the same issues: I want to lose weight, to make better grades, to keep in touch with more family members, etc. While thinking about which of these would be this year’s issue I would take on the burden of attempting to change. Then I began to think of a few resolutions the University should consider as we enter into 2012.
Our basketball team needs to work itself to a championship. Our players are the equivalent to the family members we’ve lost touch with.
At one point in our school’s history, N.C . State basketball used to be respected and nationally known, something fans could be proud of. Now, having our last championship be nearly 30 years ago, some fans have given up hope of the team ever returning to the glory years.
These long-lost relatives must be reunited and given the support they need to regain their once prestigious stance on the pillar of ACC basketball, if nothing else than to beat the Tarheels .
The budget needs to be balanced. NCSU’s finances are the extra weight we strive to lose throughout the year.
The economy being what it is has put a strain on everyone, including our University. With fewer funds from the state legislature coming in, the University takes the route of adding more money to its students’ bill. While our administrators claim to be trying their hardest to balance the budget in order to keep our University the most affordable university in North Carolina, their goal has not succeeded.
A more systematic, business-like approach should be taken to our budget. Evaluate the various expenditures to our budget, determine which are good investments and cut the funding from those that are not.
The money does not need to come from students’ pockets merely because the state decides to cut from education again. Plan accordingly, evaluate properly and the extra pounds of our budget will be shed in time for swimsuit season.
Our advising system needs improvement. Each year students are asked to rate their advising experience, and each year the grades have dropped lower and lower.
Year after year, one of the top complaints from students is their lax advisers, or even the constant miscommunication from their advisers–jeopardizing not only their grades, but their graduation date. Communication between advisers and advisees could be improved if advisers didn’t have so much of the responsibility.
Students should recognize their job is to learn, make the grade and graduate. The adviser serves a bridge between each of those steps, not the shortcut to get to the end result. This being said, the thought of some students never seeing their adviser is more than scary, it’s appalling.
However if you’re like me, your resolutions begins Jan. 1 and you attempt to resolve them for about a week before the same old excuses arise: I like food too much, a C is perfectly fine as long as I get credit for it, the phone works both ways. These excuses are an obstacle we must overcome.
For NCSU , these excuses sound something like this: it’s a building year for the Wolfpack , the legislature controls whether tuition increases, advisers are going to differ and we have to work toward the middle. To give us a happy new year, the University, which includes students, professors, advisers and administrators, should work toward resolving the issues we face for the upcoming year. Make your resolutions, N.C . State, and resolve them.
