 "Photo:")
I've been stood up. The sad realization punches me in the chest. I look like an idiot. I've spent my morning making sure everything was in place for success; I'm showered, in the perfect outfit, bag packed, pencil and paper at the ready. I'm eagerly staring around and clutching my DARS with sweaty palms. In short, I look a hot mess.
Now, all of you that just smirked, stop your judging. If you're a senior at Miami University, you might recognize this scene. It's a textbook definition for first week force-add scramble. I wasn't waiting for a date. I was waiting for the remaining credits required for graduation. And once again, I'd been stood up.
Looking around the Upham Hall classroom, I knew this was going to be a tough fight. Force-add slips sit prominently on every few desks. And instead of the normal first-day, shy silence, the classroom was buzzing with irritated conversation.
"I NEED this for my thematic sequence. Why do you need this class?"
"My major. And I'm a senior." Ba-bam, beat that.
"So am I."
Crap. I was never getting in. I heard similar flexing of entitlement muscles and realized no one else was either. More than 20 people showed up the first day to fight for five newly created spots.
ITS/ATH 301 is a requirement for a thematic sequence in anthropology, an international studies major requirement and fulfills CAS-C of the Miami plan. Traditionally, it's taught in the fall, just one section. Forty students. After the first day circus, the professor is teaching another section in the spring. I'm on the pre-waiting list.
It's not my poor planning, I've lived the Miami liberal arts dream. With a double major, minor and semester abroad, every credit hour been scrutinized by my three advisers and myself. I planned for you, Miami, why don't you plan for me? Thanks, I'll be taking 18 hours second semester senior year.
It's like the housing snafu (a.k.a. the Havighurst barracks). How was this ever going to add up to a classroom of our mean class size of 29 students? Scoff.
The most irritating thing is, I don't know whom to blame - the registrar, the provost, department heads, professors?
Everyone I've ever talked to about class size, department offerings and faculty course loads has shrugged it off, saying it's not me, it's the budget's fault.
Miami boasts some of the highest graduation rates in the country. According the university's right-to-know Web site, 80 percent of Miami students graduate within six years; 67 percent graduate within four years.
But I'm not alone in my senior fight for the force-add. Many of my friends, classmates and now, opponents in the struggle for the signature have found themselves locked out. I have to wonder how long these fantastic graduation numbers are going to continue. The university just cut $5 million from the 2009-10 academic year budget and many visiting faculty are being shown the door. As students, we've heard bigger classes will pick up the slack. As I've just learned first hand, the problems aren't just the entry-level classes anymore. And those bigger classes (or in a perfect world, additional sections) may or may not exist.
I know, wa wahhh, force-add another class. Not that easy. Most professors, after surviving the first-week force-add scramble are not ready to up their rosters. Rightly so, they've missed a week or more material and there are now additional papers and exams to grade.
So, I'm left here. Packed spring semester, if God willing, nothing overlaps and I get into everything, I get my diploma in May. If not … well, let me tell you about my first day of college.
My father said one thing to me the day he dropped me in front of Symmes Hall.
"You've got four years here. Make them count."
With that, he patted my shoulder, got back into the rented SUV and drove home to Atlanta. Then, I took that comment as a piece of "seize the day" kind of encouragement. Oh silly first-year, now I realize Dad was telling me I had four years of out-of-state tuition. No more, no less.
