After four years of taking required classes in high school, the majority of students cannot wait to take college courses which actually interest them. However, when you enroll in college you face the harsh reality: often, picking a schedule is less “what I think will be fun” and more “what will make sure I graduate
on time.”

Planning your college agenda is not an easy task. You have to make sure you take all required classes, have time for lunch and, if you are lucky, avoid the instructor who received a horrible review on ratemyprofessor.com.

By the end of the first few weeks of the semester, you are well aware of whether you love or hate your schedule. Regardless of what you think about this semester, you hope that next semester you get an early registration time, but know to some degree you’re at the mercy of the system.

Let’s pretend you are a freshman who plans on studying abroad spring semester of junior year. You plan the entire first two years of college preparing for it, just to discover the fall prior that one of your required classes is only offered the semester you will be overseas — an issue which could have been prevented with better communication.

Or maybe you really love music and find your senior year that you can actually register for the History of Rock ‘n’ Roll class before it fills up, only to discover you have to take your capstone class during that same time slot. Wouldn’t you have liked to avoid these situations by being asked about what classes you actually wanted
to take?

Another example: This is the first semester that the “Culture of Language” anthropology course has been offered in almost six years. It may not have the highest student demand, but anthropology majors and minors would probably like to know that this is a now-or-never course for them, before registering for classes. If they did not sign up for it this semester, they may never get another chance.

We at the Tribune think there may be a way to ensure that more students are happy with their schedule: a university-administered class survey.

Such a survey would allow students to express their interests in various classes and could also include a schedule that explains when certain courses are offered, if not available every year. Obviously class requirements would be set outside the constraints of this survey, but it would be able to show which classes are more desired by students, allowing Marquette to plan for more professors to teach certain courses or offer the class more frequently.

We know that a university-administered survey would not fix every class conflict, but it could resolve many of them. Since his inauguration, the Rev. Scott Pilarz has stressed the importance of incorporating student input into making administrative decisions. Under his presidency, the university established a new Finance and Review Committee that actually allows for students to attend meetings and voice their opinions.

We greatly appreciate being given the opportunity to express our opinions to the people who ultimately make the decisions. If students can continue to value this new sense of responsibility, we hope it can expand into decisions about the curriculum. With tuition steadily on the rise, it is safe to say that the majority of students would rather get the most out of their education by paying for classes which interest them.