I am not going to beat around the bush; I have a personal vendetta against the Ferris State University Seminar course.
This class is an absolute waste of time and money. If you have not already been subjugated to the Ferris Board of Trustee’s decision in 2002 that forcibly makes every incoming freshman pay for the one credit hour course, let me give you a little information on it.
The university feels incoming freshmen need a little extra push to acclimate to college life successfully. They would be right, except for the fact not all students are the same, or need such hand-holding to successfully transition from high school to college.
I graduated high school in 2005. Since then I have worked successfully in several management positions, toured with a band around Michigan and enjoyed living in a college town. Upon enrolling in Ferris I hoped I would have been excused from FSUS. Those excused are transfer students with more than 12 credits, or incoming students who have been out of school for more than 10 years. The course does nothing more than force students to learn about “tough choices,” “time management” and “community participation.”
FSUS was instituted in 2002 because it was paying penance to the State of Michigan for being on the top ten lists of “all-time party colleges.” The heat was brought on the university after several successions of incidents at the turn of the 21st century. Two cases of note are when a 20-year-old fell out of a window downtown and a 24-year-old essentially drank himself to death. Shortly after these incidents the State of Michigan began cracking down on universities. Thus, FSUS was born. Is it the university’s responsibility to coddle each and every freshman to make sure they don’t royally mess up? Should you, as a student, be paying for someone else’s mistakes and inadequacies? Do you feel like you need this course?
If you answered “yes,” then that is your prerogative. I feel this course should be an option and a free option at that. Some people really do need an extra push, but fortunately, the time I’ve spent in the world of the working stiffs has made me responsible and mature enough to handle college effectively without such a course. Some of the professors have candidly commented to me that this course is used to “punish” teachers who do not have tenure or have been acting out against university policies. Most students I have parlayed with agreed on the issue of its uselessness, with one exception being a student who said, “I like it because we don’t do anything but write in a journal, and it’s really easy. The teacher doesn’t even care about it and lets us do what we want.”
I do not feel my $348 for a credit hour would be effectively used in an FSUS course. Actually, it’s your $348 as a taxpayer funding my FAFSA loans.
how much do i agree with you? 100%. If Ferris wanted to bring down its so called “Party College” label, how about instituting some of the events that Grand Valley State does? If you look on their webpage, they offer so many FREE alcohol awareness classes. The only thing Ferris has is the one time a year event, Beer, Booze, and Books.
To be honest, I think FSUS is a class that Ferris created to bring in more money.
I also agree. I found FSUS to be a total waste. As a non-traditional student, many of the events I was forced to attend weren’t of use to me (Learning about safe sex? Thanks, but I’m married and you’re three years too late)… not to mention how inconvenient it was to have to make sure my husband didn’t work on the nights I had to go to events so I wouldn’t have to find a babysitter. Getting to know my way around FLITE was the only thing I honestly feel helped me, but if regular tours were offered, other students who are new to campus and don’t have to take FSUS would get the opportunity, too. I would have been better off if I could have used the time I spent in FSUS, writing papers about time management, and going to events that didn’t apply to me to study for the chemistry class I ended up failing.
Ferris State was a GREAT college until FSUS and the board started cracking down on universities. I graduated from Ferris last May, and the transition that I’ve seen the college take from when I started as a Freshman (in fall of 2006) to where it is now is ridiculous. College is a time for kids to explore life outside of their parents rule and have the opportunity to make choices and learn from mistakes. There are 3 kinds of police at Ferris: Big Rapids Police, Campus Police, and State Police. All of which are cracking down on college parties. By the time I left Ferris, aside from the occasional holiday-themed party (i.e., halloween, christmas, etc.) there were no large gatherings of students. Parties are one of the biggest attractions about college in general, and Ferris hates that. I’m not saying you should drink yourself to death or jump out a window (even though things like that don’t necessarily constitute a BAD party) but you should be able to have a throw-down at your own place without the cops busting in through the doors and macing everyone in the face (which HAS happened at a party I was at, just because there were two minors there out of dozens of legal-aged adults). In short, Ferris police are a bunch of post-jocks who peaked in high school, and are looking to push around college kids to relive their high school glory years. PROVE ME WRONG.