Cash, money, worth – students shell out tons of it each semester in the noble name of a fabulous future. In case you missed the memo (literally), students will need their lucky pennies to get through this year’s budget cuts, not to mention an aspirin after reading about the whole thing.
On April 5, the office of a Superintendant/President graced the students with a pseudo-informational email entitled “Letter to the Community." This useless, poorly worded rhetorical rubbish is aptly subtitled “State Budget Crisis Affect on Chaffey College” (italics added).
Ignoring the obvious spelling error made more obvious by the 32 point bolded font, one presses on only to find more rubbish. An awkwardly self-congratulatory introduction precedes an artificial questionnaire section that ironically raises more questions than it answers. There are several major, recurring problems within this letter.
First, it’s bloated with pointless statements such as, “Our goal is to provide the best educational opportunities to our students,” that are either self evident or just plain meaningless.
Next, the spelling and punctuation errors. Apparently, when the budget crisis hit, the first thing to go was the “F7” key on these peoples’ computers. Blatant errors like using “affect” when you mean “effect,” or placing periods in the middle of four spaces makes it awfully hard to take these people seriously.
Finally, the biggest problem with this letter is that it largely fails its primary function: to inform. Though the letter is intended to be informational, it actually contains precious little in the way of useful information. Yes, it’s terribly disappointing that classes will be decreased by 67% this summer compared to last, but that doesn’t help anyone!
Students have always had to fight as hard as possible for their classes. There are so many more pertinent questions out there: Are my classes going to be around? How far back is this going to set my college schedule? Why is Chaffey always seemingly under construction? How is it that we ended up building a $23 million art building (among other things) in the middle of the worst recession since the 1930s? Furthermore, why weren’t the students given the chance to vote on these things? Does anyone else see the irony in Chaffey’s claim that it’s “the affordable alternative” to a university, being played on expensive flat screen televisions, paid for by cash-strapped students and taxpayers?
The whole thing smacks of the sort of disingenuous rhetoric usually reserved for political forays. We pay these people because we have to--because that’s the path to the degree or job we want or need. When people with doctorates make mistakes that wouldn’t fly in a high school English class, it begs the question: Is it worth it?
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