Like most students, I chose to attend LSU over BRCC for a specific reason — it’s not a community college. I worked my ass off to get here and pay my tuition, but for what?
 
Not only are we facing a financial crisis threatening the value of our hard-earned degrees, but also we’re apparently devolving into a community college as a response.
 
Chancellor Michael Martin, commenting on the University partnering with BRCC, had this to say: “I believe there’s a bigger role for community colleges. I see BRCC as a natural partner with LSU.”
 
I didn’t have a hard time comprehending these sentiments, as the recent language department cuts in the classical languages (in terms of instructors, at least) proved his point.
 
But there’s a reason I didn’t take Hebrew and Greek at BRCC — they don’t offer them. And sadly, if the recent language cuts are any indication, we’re becoming just like our “partner” across town, which offers only French and Spanish. Talk about a holistic educational experience.
 
Martin, who has previously worked at community colleges, also said, “I held the same standards [for students] at a community college [as at a four-year-institution],” followed by a profound defense of community college instructors sometimes having higher focuses on teaching.
 
If this is true, why don’t we just go ahead and change our name? If we’re truly trying to partner with BRCC, let’s just become Louisiana State Community College — it has a nice ring to it, and we would have the best football team in the NJCAA .
 
But satire aside, things are bad — worse than bad. Programs are getting cut and will continue to be cut. Some of the best professors in the nation are getting axed, while general studies, the Communication across the Curriculum program and Spanish remain untouched for the time being.
 
And to make matters worse, we’re attempting to integrate University-level programs with community college-level ones mostly for the sake of higher graduation rates. But why are graduation rates playing a role in this whole debacle?
 
Are we merely a degree factory, functioning only to pump out pieces of paper to give off the illusion of education for those who have paid the fee?
Nothing good can come from this. Our University climbed to its greatest levels of achievement through research, having a diverse curriculum and back-breaking work from great men and women — not by associating and modeling ourselves after a community college.
 
Andrew Robertson is a 23-year-old English writing and culture senior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_Arobertson.
 
 
 
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Contact Andrew Robertson at [email protected]