From the Editors' Desk
Various Editorial Remarks

"Respect For the Thirteenth Grade"
by Myles Collier

As the prevailing winds slowly blow off shore and the feral cats find a cozy spot for the night, I too must prepare for a new day.   In my two and a half years here at KCC I am reflecting greatly in my past experiences and observations while I enter my last two and a half months.   A spectrum of notions as to how to do it better at the next level and what could have transpired if I would have only stayed up later or come in   on more weekends.   How I could have exposed any number of truths as to the function of this commuter campus and perhaps left this publication in a brighter, less translucent, light.   Yet, larger than this publication, as it would be now, is this institution well clustering of buildings.  

If this is an elevated school of enlightenment then perhaps it is time to change the bulb.   Was there a sufficient coddling of the attendees with the familiar class schedule I left back in 2003, before my collegiate years?    Most days I am uncertain as to whether enter the Goldstein building (the high school on campus) or the Academic village.   I was also perplexed as to the reason the administration still wants to know if I was three minutes late.   Would they be interested to know that I was making out next to the fish tank, being held up in the stall or simply decided to take the long way, along the shore?   Would this be pertain ate to my education, one that I am actually paying for.   Would it serve my self interest to disrupt the class and disrespect the instructor as to rustle my way to the row of seats in the back of the class?   Or should I not have to worry about that scenario and if I am going to be later than that I should understand that I can go to a secluded spot to study or kill time then once the class had concluded meet with the instructor and gather the assignment.   What is wrong about that?   Instead I am counting time throughout the semester trying not to waste any days “in case you have an emergency” So I won't have to plead my case with a less than enthusiastic instructor.   For anything that I have learned I know I pay for good grades.

The more constant of my thoughts were how you are going to bring these students to a level of understanding that could foster a whole new generation.   Then as you may hear in a movie “I got the tape” well actually it was a website and it answered my question quite cleverly.   I now have a better understanding as to why the administration might still enjoy coddling.   We haven't proven ourselves to them.   Maybe we shouldn't have to.   But with state and federal money depending and the ambitions of our executive branch (here at KCC) it is understandable why they would take certain actions to try and keep students in their seats.  

This site showed statistics that were, let's say eye-opening to the reality of the bodies presently bustling around open space.   The more surprising of these numbers dealt with graduation and retention rates.   With an undergraduate enrollment of just over 14,000 this year Kingsborough sees less than 25 percent actually wear a robe.

Respect for the thirteenth grade?   Is that what it has come down too?   Young minds forcibly attending to satisfy another entity or not possessing a drive that is needed to attain the stated goal.   The reason I pose this questions to you is a new found frustrations aside form this paper.   Is it the more common thought that the attending do the posses the capacity or self respect that is required to be a prominent facility of higher education?   Or, are controllable forces hindering the progressing of this community commuter college?   In my time here I have had many off base conversations with certain persons and have overheard some of the more striking (talks?) than even the late Hunter A. Thompson could have imagined.   Coming to KCC not for personal reasons only attending here to satisfy the ones paying your tuition.   I have known people who were not enrolled in any classes yet they had friends who were and they would come over just wanting to hang and to enjoy the view or having to smoke a blunt and get all twisted in order to tolerate any of their classes.   Whatever the vice or stipulation the one key to this is the fact that you should want to posses the drive that is required in order to absorb what post secondary education really can provide for you or leave the space to a one committed to bettering themselves as well as an institution.   Is it unfounded that the administration is enforcing procedures such as the attendance policy in order to keep students, who don't want to be in their classes, in their school?

These grievances are not unfounded. They are based on numbers acquired from the Center of Education Statistics, a part of the Department of Education.     

This institution will service more than 14,000 (undergraduate students) over the course of an academic period. Of those only 20 percent of male students and 27 percent of female students will indeed get to finally get a good view from the MAC, walking off the podium.   But more so than the rate of graduation are the ones making up the graduating class.   Non-resident aliens make up about 8 percent of the total student population yet they are responsible for 34 percent of the total number of persons receiving their degree this was the highest total of any group.   This was very encouraging and it showed me that the ones who are serious about their education not taking it for granted are the ones who would achieve their goals.   But it also reflects that lack of commitment on the rest of the student population.    

The majority of influence does rest on the student population given this relationship but it also falls of the professors that this institutions would render competent in order to serve what is actually is a paying client.   This is a public school but it is not a free school so when my tip money is paying for your daughters news car remember that when your office hours said until three and you took off at 145 don't be astonished to find that I am not the most casual with you.   This is not in a specific reference, just a for instance.   It has been hit or miss with most of my professors yet lately I have found a few diamonds in the rough.   In regards to the similarities that I have observed in my classes it is apparent to me that most have varying levels of education stemming from the previous educational experience (high school).   This is by no means a negative.   But in stead of braking education over ones cranium it might be a little bit more effective if you use it as a tool to lift people up with.   As it relates to this previous stamen it is the job of this institution to scrutinize the happenings of the classroom rather than the accommodations of ht conference room.   Focus on your students' needs and their voices instead of your own explanation found in the third edition psychology book.

Its seems that the powers that be, like in most cases, is out of touch with providing the educational community with a higher school of thought and that the void created presently in this situation can be corrected with action.   The lack of creates a lapse in the progression of achievement that could be possible with a new realization of the goals at hand.  

For those who are serious about their future the 25 percent that will attain their degree it would benefit all around to take notice of their habits. Their treating of an education as a responsibility to themselves and not of an onlooker's point of view.