Please post your questions and comments under the appropriate category.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Administration
Questions/comments regarding the Administration - communication, problem-solving. (OSA, the Dean's Office, Academic affairs, etc.)
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Admissions was something like 38% last year. The admissions rate of peer schools is far lower (closer to 25%). On top of that, SIPA actually chose to increase the size of its incoming class of MIA to 350 from 325. Why? First of all, the building is crowded enough. Second, when potential students see a high acceptance rate, they see it as a sign of weakness...so when SIPA increases class size and in turn increase acceptance rates, this in the long run only lowers yields, which starts the whole feedback loop all over again.
Why are we not allowed to register for six credits for our internship in the summer? My understanding is, this would give us half-time status and make us eligible for financial aid. The internship is part of our curriculum, and many of us are going into fields that aren't lucrative and don't offer paid internships. Why should we have to put a required part of our education on a credit card?
My anonymous friend put it best. SIPA is overcrowded as it is, yet it is accepting more students and increasing the class size. In the big picture, this does not bode well for the school. Imagine coming to visit SIPA as a prospective student and seeing an Econ or Stats class with people sitting in the aisles and out the doors.
For us, the school's just getting too large, we begin to feel increasingly lost and disconcerted.
Worst of all is the elephant sitting in the room: SIPA looks like a cash cow, inventing new degree programs, accepting more students, and operating beyond capacity to get more money.
I am a 1st year MPA however this comment applies to all of us. As I agree with most of the students' comments, I want to provide a constructive comment for the bigger picture of SIPA. Hopefully it will lead to some action.
After talking with some 2nd year students, one of the big problems on why we are not seeing any progress is the lack of a permanent Dean to lead the school in a specific direction. So everything we are learning in class is not being used within the SIPAs administration. So basically, SIPA is not practicing what they preach. If we are really going to change the world we need to start here at SIPA.
So why don't we use external consultants (like we are learning about in public management) to devote the time and energy necessary to transform SIPA. A report of the issues and proposal of what can be done to move SIPA in the direction we all thought we were heading could be created. A team of administrators (from SIPA and the school of Arts and Sciences), faculty and students would need to be the backbone to make sure the suggestions will be implemented.
We need to demand this from Columbia University not just the SIPA administration so we can learn by example as well as in the classroom.
On a side note: A suggestion that could be implemented more immediately is to require administrators and advisors to sit in on some of our classes, especially core curriculum to improve their ability to support us as well as provide insight to the teachers.
4 comments:
Admissions was something like 38% last year. The admissions rate of peer schools is far lower (closer to 25%). On top of that, SIPA actually chose to increase the size of its incoming class of MIA to 350 from 325.
Why? First of all, the building is crowded enough. Second, when potential students see a high acceptance rate, they see it as a sign of weakness...so when SIPA increases class size and in turn increase acceptance rates, this in the long run only lowers yields, which starts the whole feedback loop all over again.
Why are we not allowed to register for six credits for our internship in the summer? My understanding is, this would give us half-time status and make us eligible for financial aid. The internship is part of our curriculum, and many of us are going into fields that aren't lucrative and don't offer paid internships. Why should we have to put a required part of our education on a credit card?
My anonymous friend put it best. SIPA is overcrowded as it is, yet it is accepting more students and increasing the class size. In the big picture, this does not bode well for the school. Imagine coming to visit SIPA as a prospective student and seeing an Econ or Stats class with people sitting in the aisles and out the doors.
For us, the school's just getting too large, we begin to feel increasingly lost and disconcerted.
Worst of all is the elephant sitting in the room: SIPA looks like a cash cow, inventing new degree programs, accepting more students, and operating beyond capacity to get more money.
I am a 1st year MPA however this comment applies to all of us. As I agree with most of the students' comments, I want to provide a constructive comment for the bigger picture of SIPA. Hopefully it will lead to some action.
After talking with some 2nd year students, one of the big problems on why we are not seeing any progress is the lack of a permanent Dean to lead the school in a specific direction. So everything we are learning in class is not being used within the SIPAs administration. So basically, SIPA is not practicing what they preach. If we are really going to change the world we need to start here at SIPA.
So why don't we use external consultants (like we are learning about in public management) to devote the time and energy necessary to transform SIPA. A report of the issues and proposal of what can be done to move SIPA in the direction we all thought we were heading could be created. A team of administrators (from SIPA and the school of Arts and Sciences), faculty and students would need to be the backbone to make sure the suggestions will be implemented.
We need to demand this from Columbia University not just the SIPA administration so we can learn by example as well as in the classroom.
On a side note: A suggestion that could be implemented more immediately is to require administrators and advisors to sit in on some of our classes, especially core curriculum to improve their ability to support us as well as provide insight to the teachers.
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