Being at Texas Tech University
for five years, I think that a lot of things could be improved in the Texas
Tech University community. In my opinion, the most important three things that
we should work on are: students respecting their instructors, graduate students
thinking about their goals, and the whole university community sorting and
recycling waste.
First, I would like to
push the students to respect their instructors. Attendance of the undergraduate students is problematic, since they
sometimes do not come to classes or do not inform the instructors about their
absences. In addition, some students leave classes early. Even if instructors are taking attendance, there are students
who leave classes
immediately after they sign the attendance sheet. Instructors respect students’
time and let them leave on time when the class ends. On the other hand, students
should also respect instructors’ time and not leave the class early
intentionally. Besides, some students do not care about their grades; some
other students care about their grades, but they do not want to actually do the
work, so they come up with excuses and intend to miss exams. Many students play
on cellphones, check Facebook, text their friends, chat with each other, or
sleep during class. As a part-time instructor, I hope that my students can do
well in my courses. And I believe that students are the people who would be
benefited the most if they respect their instructors.
Second, I would like to
push graduate students to think about their goals. A lot of students are going
to graduate school nowadays. I suggest graduate students, especially the
students who are in doctoral programs, sit down and think what their goals are.
Why do they go to graduate school? What do they want to do after getting their
degree? Do they like research? Do they like teaching? It is possible that
graduate school is a waste of time or at least not the best use of their time
if they do not like to do research or teaching. It might be even harder for
them to find a job after they get a doctoral degree compared to after they get
a master’s degree. One of my friends, who was doing a Ph.D. in Psychology for
three years, was contacted by her advisor to inquire whether she likes to do
research or not. After thinking deeply and realizing that she does not like
research, she decided to graduate with a master’s degree. She is working at a
kindergarten and teaching children Chinese now. She told me that she loves her
job very much and she is very grateful to her advisor. Another friend of mine
was in graduate school for ten years. He finally realized that it is
“dangerous” to be in graduate school for such a long time and decided to work
on graduation while he was looking for a job. Graduate school is enjoyable and
valuable when students have clear goals.
Third, I would like to
push the university community to be more aware of sorting and recycling waste. I
think the university community is wasting a lot of resources. We need to carry
out campaigns of classified garbage recovery and utilization in campus. This
can not only economize resources, but also enhance the consciousness of environmental
protection of students. Some students and faculty members might want to sort
and recycle waste, but they do not have the environment supporting them. To fix
this problem, I suggest that we put separate trash cans for different types of
trash, so that it is convenient for students and faculty to sort waste and it
also makes recycling easy. Thinking green should be an everyday habit. Instead
of just planting some trees in Arbor Day, we should take care of our earth
every day starting from little things.
In conclusion, respect from undergraduate students,
objectives of graduate students, and recycling of waste are the most important
three things that we desperately need to work on. None of these can be pushed
without the support and cooperation of students, faculty and administrators.
The first and the most important thing is to realize the problems before we
solve the problems. After we begin to work on these problems, it might be hard
to see a quick result at first. However, as long as we keep pushing the
university community, we will see great returns in the long run. (Yu Hua)
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