 "Photo: Megan Valantine")
Monday and Tuesday’s academic planning sessions with Provost Brad Cook allowed opportunity for students to provide feedback on what assets SUU must protect and what SUU lacks.
Students agreed that SUU’s strengths lie in the size of the university, small class sizes and individual attention from professors.
Among other strengths were student success in pre-med programs, opportunity for student involvement and funding to pursue unique opportunities.
Tyler Hogge, a senior finance major from Alpine, said one of SUU’s weaknesses is failing to provide top-notch recruiters to SUU.
“Graduates are missing out on job opportunities because they lack job opportunity information,” Hogge said.
Hogge also said SUU needs a clearer identity and develop a reputation because when first deciding to come to SUU, a deciding factor was that he received a scholarship.
“I didn’t know (what) SUU was until I came down here,” he said. “It could have helped me out if I had known all of SUU’s strengths.”
Losing good faculty and staff was another concern.
Students agreed SUU lacks long-term commitment because many students use SUU as a stepping-stone.
Laurel Udy, a sophomore psychology major from Salt Lake City, said SUU needs to work on demonstrating that its students can compete with other schools.
Another weakness addressed was SUU’s lack of information and preparation provided for graduate school.
Megan Lloyd, SUUSA academics vice president academics, said one area of concern in her education at SUU was weak academics and poor quality.
Lloyd said some of her communication classes duplicated information rather than building on each class and that it lacked applied dimension.
Lloyd said she has learned more in student government and extracurricular activities than attending actual classes.
Other areas of concern were grade inflation and unimportance on concentrating on expanding quantity and not focusing on maintaining quality.
“If (grade inflation) is the type of reputation we have, those are the types of students we will attract,” Hogge said.
Uncontrolled growth would lose one of SUU’s greatest strengths which is personal attention.
Areas that needed improvement were defining what SUU is, marketing itself better and demonstrating that SUU students are competitive on a national level.
Lloyd addressed as part of the SUU experience, service learning needs to be implemented to provide a well-rounded education.
Lloyd said SUU has a lack of relevant teaching in the classroom and needs advisers who have correct advising.
“I felt that in some of my classes, I can learn more on my own,” she said.
Hogge, Students Committed to Integrity & Ethics Club president, said SUU needs consistantancy across campus in implementing integrity.
“An opportunity we are trying to take is to be a leader in the state in tackling academic dishonesty,” Hogge said.
Whitney Simmons, a junior political science major from Woods Cross, said SUU needs to be fair in disciplining in all departments.
Simmons said having a consistent panel for students to follow a centralized group of rules is something SUU should consider.
Simmons said it is unfair for students in different departments to receive different consequences for similar offenses.
Students agreed that areas threatening SUU were exponential growth because large class sizes could lessen the value of an SUU degree, which in turn would mean less to employers.
"If (graduates) can't get jobs, it looks bad," Hogge said. "The thread of the degree meaning less to employers is another threat when in all reality it means just the same as a BYU degree."
Cook said it was important to have an SUU degree increase in value over time.
"In time of economic scarcity like this is to make advances in the quality front," Cook said. "What we want to say is that in five years or ten years that degree is going to provide dividends to you for the rest of your life."
Approximately 20 students attended the planning sessions.
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