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 FSU Board of Trustee’s decision in 2002 that forcibly makes every incoming freshmen 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 at FSU, 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 10 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 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 who have been acting out against other 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.
I now bring to the table what else $348 could buy: 17 books on self-help, test taking, time management and surviving college; two student loan payments; one month of rent for a one-bedroom apartment; four years of season passes for Bulldog hockey; and a five-day cruise to the Caribbean.