Crisis?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Binghamton University - SUNY
1

<p>According to a staff member, the university could not be more different from the days it was called the "star of the SUNY system". It is lacking resources, absurd faculty student ratio and busting at the seams while enrolling more and more students and putting in additional semesters whenever they can find a spare week to increase $$ and push more students through faster. Quality isn't practical. It's become an understaffed generic medium sized public school.</p>

<p>From the student newspaper}
"Freezing, crashes mar Spring 2015 class registration"
"According to Binghamton University’s Information Technology Services (ITS), the system sometimes cannot handle the large amounts of students that are trying to use the system at once, especially during registration.""“When we’re short-staffed, when [we] only have a very short amount of time with the student and the system’s not running, [we] can’t do what [we’re] supposed to do,” Seymour said. “It doesn’t make my job impossible, but it delays the amount of time I have to spend with a student because I’m dealing with mechanical issues and not dealing with the academic issues.” "However, some students believe that a school of BU’s size shouldn’t experience such problems. Amanda McDonnell, a junior majoring in neuroscience, said that the system’s unreliability made registration stressful."</p>

<p>From student newspaper}
"Short-staffed, Harpur Advising struggles to accomodate students
2,231-to-one adviser-to-student ratio nearly five times the national average</p>

<p>"Harpur College currently boasts 8,924 students, which results in one adviser for every 2,231 students. Walk-ins are scheduled Monday through Friday, but the advisers can only accommodate about 40 students a day.</p>

<p>Jill Seymour, the associate director of Harpur Advising, said that despite this setback, the advising staff has been doing the best they can.</p>

<p>“It has been a crazy semester but I think it has proven our mettle,” Seymour said. “The students who come to our office sometimes have to wait a few days to see an adviser, so we really appreciate the students understanding that this is a crazy time for us.”"</p>

<p>"Upperclassmen like Mohamed Bah, a senior majoring in economics, have had difficulty planning their schedule to fit their final requirements. There are just one or two advisers on walk-in duty at all times while the others are doing appointments or administrative duties.</p>

<p>“There is a huge amount of students and they seemed to be understaffed, and they definitely have to do something about it,” Bah said. “It took me literally three days to speak to someone; it’s terrible. It does not do any justice to Harpur students.”</p>

2

<p>My boyfriend is editor of the school paper and I can guarantee you that everyone who wrote that loves Binghamton. The purpose of the editorial is to find things that could be improved or to offer an alternate opinion on how things are currently done. There will always be complaints at any school but to call it a “crisis” is slightly…hilarious? Absurd? Also, Jill Seymour is an angel.</p>

3

<p>Alternative opinions are often valuable.</p>

4

<p>Sorry, but this post comes off as a bit ridiculous and overaggressive. Yes, advising has been understaffed for years, and yes, everyone is annoyed by registration this year. But that’s really all it is: an annoyance. At most it just means you waste a couple hours fumbling around with online registration/waiting for an adviser. To suggest that these problems are indicative of “crisis” is bizarre, and not something that any student here would agree with.</p>

5

<p>Overaggressive and ridiculous? These are student quotes from the school newspaper. In font larger and darker than the name of the paper-</p>

<p>UNDERSTAFFED OVERWHELMED</p>

<p>If not a crisis, why headlines taking up half the page? I</p>

<p>“Advising appointments are booked through Thanksgiving, leaving students in competition for walk-in slots to discuss scheduling and other concerns. “I know it’s a busy time, but there seems to be some sort of dysfunction.” </p>

6

<p>Because that’s literally the format of Pipe Dream. Seriously, stop making a mountain out of nothing. Every issue has the same graphic design layout like that. There’s a template. They write these editorials like 1am before the paper is due to be sent to the printers. This is not some breaking story they’ve been working on for months.</p>

7

<p>I wasn’t referring to the quotes, I was referring to the title/first paragraph of your post which reads like an attack ad. Anyway I’m just going to rephrase what I said before: none of the students here care that much about this “crisis”. I think a single newspaper editorial is giving you the impression that this is some sort of major issue, but if you were actually a student here you would realize that you’re making a big deal over something which has had a minimal effect on student life.</p>

<p>If you’re going to stay stubborn over this, here’s another editorial which mentions that the school is hiring 8 additional advisors: <a href=“A Word of Advice - Pipe Dream”>http://www.bupipedream.com/opinion/43104/advice-atorial/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Reads like an attack ad? I was told that the words “UNDERSTAFFED OVERWHELMED” Took up half the first page of the college newspaper. Use of very large bolded type typically is reserved for important stories. How many other editions had a headline that large this semester? The words Understaffed and Overwhelmed in bolded and in caps suggested an urgent situation. The word crisis came to mind. If it is not a major issue then perhaps you should write to the editor of the school newspaper and suggest they not take an alarmist approach to minor issues. Can’t see where explaining why I chose the title is “staying stubborn”. I’m not saying it is a major issue nor am I even saying it is a crisis. It was my impression that is what they were saying. </p>

9

<p>Like I said, I think the newspaper gave you the wrong impression. It’s not a big deal. Let’s not make a big deal over it. :slight_smile: </p>

10

<p>To be honest, I was disappointing with the quality of advising at Harpur but then again binghamton is a large public school with very limited resources so it’s not really a surprise.</p>

11

<p>Sprinkles12 you are correct. It is a large public school with a faculty student ratio of 1:20. Also not a surprise, loads of large classes. But it is cheap compared to schools that offer more support and smaller classes. When you double the size of the student body and don’t increase staff, that’s what you get. But it offers a cheap efficient degree and that is exactly what many students want. It attracts a different kind of student now than in the past but even more than before. It is able to accept a much larger percent of applicants too. Great for students wanting an efficient degree they can get without much hassle and without paying a fortune. </p>

12

<p>And any school situated where they can get 6 ft of snow in one day needs to offer a great deal to attract students. </p>

13

<p>Huh? Binghamton didn’t get 6 feet of snow in one day - never has even come close to that. I know - I live a couple miles from campus and was raking leaves yesterday. You have apparently have confused Binghamton and Buffalo Lostaccount, which is odd considering you are always posting on the Binghamton board here on CC. I would have thought you would have known the difference.</p>

<p>But then again, this whole thread is confusing, starting out with the alarmist topic title, then the select cut and paste job from the articles, like omitting the reason why they are short staffed (3 resignations and 1 maternity leave) and the fact that have already hired 4 replacements who were starting to see students later that week. But that didn’t support your position you stated in the opening paragraph so no reason to paste that part in here I suppose.</p>

<p>Then the confusing attempt to backtrack on the topic title was weird, wanting people to write the school newspaper editor instead of calling out the person who wrote the topic title?? You wrote it, you own it! And you started this thread because a “staff member” told you about the headline?</p>

<p>And when did Binghamton double its size? It currently has 16,000 students – it has been over 10,000 students since the 1980s (when I was college shopping). You might have to go back to the 1960s or 70s to find only 8000 students there. But the staff size hasn’t increased since then? Do you have any data that substantiates that claim? </p>

<p>Then the random and incorrect snow comment?</p>

<p>I have no problem with discussing opinions and topics based on correct information. For example, I agree the Student – Faculty ratio of 20:1 does stand out as being rather high at BU. I did some digging for details on that back my daughter was looking at colleges to understand that. I compared BU to Cornell which has 9:1 ratio. Interestingly, from the Common Data Sets of both schools, I recall that Cornell actually had the same percentage of classes that were 100+, actually quite a bit more that were 50+ , and fewer that were 30 and under than Binghamton. I suspect the difference isn’t so much with the classroom experience, but in the instructional/research balance of the faculty. I do remember the number of class sections per faculty member at Cornell was substantially less that Binghamton’s – not surprising considering the research focus of Cornell. It does show that sometimes you have to dig into information a little deeper before making conclusions.</p>

14

<p>Sorry things are confusing for you Bearinhoney. Your focus on my posts is confusing to me. Can’t see a justification for your analysis of my posts. If you have opinions about the university you should feel free to post them. I will also post mine. Sorry if you don’t agree with mine. You can’t control what others write. I am free to post my opinion. As far as I can tell, this site is not intended to be limited to what PR for the university would like. It is intended as a place people can post information, ask questions and express their opinions of the university- positive or negative. But analysis of what I comment on does not really fall within the usual scope of this site. Your analysis won’t discourage me from posting my opinion of any university I choose to comment on. Diversity of opinions is a good thing-and would be welcomed by most readers-except perhaps those working for PR at this university. For them a challenge would be that web reputation management strategies are stymied when positive and negative comments are contained within one site–what does one do? Maybe one tries to put down those with posts PR does not like.</p>

15

<p>It is true the Binghamton does not get 6 feet of snow. That is an exaggeration. It averages about 83" a season. The ratio faculty to students is 20:1. With new hires, apparently there will be 8924 students and 8 advisors. My question was based on a newspaper that covered nearly half the first page of the paper. Perhaps the hiring of 4 new advisors will cover the need. It would be good if funds increase to cover personnel needs. </p>

16

<p>Lostaccount, you are entitled to your opinions but not your own set of facts. I have no problem with you posting your opinion on here just as I have no problem with Spinkles12 posting their less than positive opinion on here. And I have no problem with supporting your opinions with facts, anecdotes or observations, but that doesn’t mean folks can’t challenge these opinions or facts - in fact that is what makes for meaningful discussion. Why can’t I analyze what you write? Folks should let you make whatever statements you want no matter how bogus they are like the “6 ft of snow in one day” comment or “double the size of the student body and don’t increase staff” statement? It’s the internet - some people might actually believe what you write!</p>

<p>Instead of responding to the points I brought up, you instead again label me as some sort of PR rep for BU. In fact the first time I ran across you, you were labeling me that in a different thread. As I stated then, I have no relationship to BU besides being a local resident who’s older daughter applied to BU and soon my younger daughter will be applying too. I do admit I go up there time to time to the Anderson Center or the Events Center, but that’s it. I have challenged erroneous statements on other schools’ forums also - obviously a pet peeve of mine - maybe I work in PR for a bunch of schools! Short of posting my name and CV, I don’t know what else will convince you otherwise. But I suppose that’s an easier comeback instead of responding to my statements.</p>

<p>I actually tried to contribute to the student/faculty ratio topic. That discrepancy was a bit of a head scratcher to me at the time. </p>

<p>And by the way, the article on advising you pasted from also talked about the long term plan to up the number of advisors to 12. </p>

<p>"According to Seymour, the national average for student to adviser ratio is 450 to 1. She said that this discrepancy isn’t good, but with new hires throughout the year, her offices hope to be up to 12 advisers in the spring — tripling what it currently has.</p>

<p>“There is no way you can do the job that you want to do with that kind of student to adviser ratio,” Seymour said. “I think the administration has recognized that, so I think that they’re trying to bring our student-to-adviser ratio more on line with what the national average is.”</p>

17

<p>It is great for potential applicants to hear different opinions. Number of advisors and faculty/student ratios may concern some students looking for a college where they can access staff, faculty and advisors. Other students may not be concerned about these issues at all. IMHO, the growth at BU is not ideal. Its reputation stems from the time it was a smaller liberal arts college that attracted top students, had a decent faculty student ratio, and had as its overarching goal educating NYers. Now the mantra is grow grow grow. On the plus side, a much larger university probably means that students who may have had difficulty gaining admissions in the past won’t in the future. The university will serve a much larger number of students.</p>

<p>BU plans to markedly increase enrollment by 2023 (22,731) compared to 2009(14,725). This isn’t driven by a need to educate NYers. The goal is money. It coincides with projections of a decline in college aged students in NY. They will increase % of students from community colleges and the % of International students to meet these increased enrollment goals. There is nothing wrong with growth but it is not being driven by the idea that a larger school is a better school. Increased community college graduates and international students have already changed Binghamton markedly. Some student may welcome these changes and others may not.</p>

<p>The plan is that 317 faculty members will be hired over the same period to instruct the additional 8006 students (faculty student ratio of 1:25). The current faculty:student ratio is 1:20.</p>

<p>According to a 2011 report about Binghamton University’s growth plan: </p>

<p>“Institutions of higher education state-wide will be impacted by the declining demographics of college-aged individuals. In 2009, of the state’s total first-time full time students SUNY captured 42 percent, CUNY 18 percent, independent institutions 34 percent, and proprietary institutions six percent (NY State Education Department). As high school graduate rates decline so will the number of first-time full time students.” Phase 3 Space Needs: 2011.</p>