General education requirements are unnecessary and a waste of time and money. However, university imposed learning is a staple of college education.
Useless classes infuriate every driven student. I first had this thought sitting in Kolniak’s Chem 1202 class. I couldn’t find any reason a finance major needs to know how to calculate enthalpy in a reaction. Similarly, why would a journalism major need to learn trigonometry or an electrical engineering student art appreciation?
That’s not to say all gen eds are bad. English classes benefit everyone, and perhaps learning philosophy is good for students lacking morals.
Many say imposing gen eds on students makes for more rounded individuals and better citizens. LSU’s general catalog reasoning is to “develop a set of intellectual abilities, a degree of sophistication, and a civic-minded perspective.” In short, LSU doesn’t want ignorant alumni out in the world.
Different arguments can fill this page, but the truth is no one cares. Have you ever heard former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush or former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talk about gen eds? A quick Google search shows only college newspapers care about the topic.
More presidential candidates should talk about general education. But why would Bernie Sanders discuss such a silly topic? Well, curious reader, because gen eds hurt the economy.
While scheduling yet another gen ed the other night, I wondered much money LSU could save students by eliminating the requirement?
As a finance major, 21 credit hours of my gen eds are unnecessary. LSU students pay around $291 per credit hour in tuition and fees per year, which means over my college career, I unnecessarily paid about $6,111.
Taking this same assumption and applying it to this year’s freshman class of 5,624 students, this generation of students — making the bold assumption they all graduate — will pay around $34.3 million in general education classes.
This number will change based on how many students don’t complete college and increases in tuition prices and inflation. However, if we’re talking tens of millions of dollars, the state Legislature would jump at the opportunity to save money.
The Higher Education Research Institute estimated 1.6 million freshmen enrolled in the United States in 2014. Assuming tuition rates across the nation mimic LSU’s, one generation of students will pay around $9.7 billion in general education requirements.
If tomorrow all universities got rid of gen ed’s, we could expect billions in savings. Since most students don’t pay tuition out of pocket, scholarships and government programs see most of the savings. The number of students needing loans also goes down.
This could cause several scenarios. The first scenario is scholarships carrying more of the tuition burden — saving the government money in programs like TOPS. Another scenario assumes the same amount of money is available, but now with lower costs more people can attend college.
Every scenario results in either savings for the government and students or more citizens able to attend college. Both scenarios are good for the economy, especially if there are less student loans indebting graduates.
Would universities like LSU, where tuition and fees make up 74 percent of the budget, get rid of class requirements? Of course not, but maybe we can start changing the conversation about general education requirements from students complaining about classes, to a legitimate economic issue.
Jay Cranford is a 21-year-old finance senior from St. Simons Island, Georgia. You can reach him on Twitter @hjcranford.