So, if you can’t find a job, should you sue your college? This week my colleagues and I are discussing the CNN story about a woman suing her alma mater for failing to help her find work. http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/03/new.york.jobless.graduate/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Now that college attendees are being treated more like customers than students, the traditional roles of teacher as authority figure and expert and student as diligent learner seem to be gone. In our desire to make education more interactive and “fun” and to cater to the learning styles of the Internet generation, have we thrown away some key ideas? Who is really responsible for MY education anyway? While I sympathize with anyone who finds herself sitting on a college degree she can’t leverage into a decent job, I am not sure that lawsuits are the answer. One of the complaints in Ms. Thompson’s lawsuit is that her school’s career center shows preferential treatment toward students with higher GPA’s. I’m not sure that as an employer I wouldn’t prefer to hire the A student myself.
Working in various roles in adult education for more than a decade has allowed me to see this issue from many angles. Unfortunately I think there’s plenty of blame to go around for our terribly broken education system. I think students who don’t attend class, don’t read their assignments and turn in sloppy work deserve low or failing marks. Call me cruel. I also think administrators who are out of touch with reality and more concerned with their job security than student performance deserve the same—if not in the form of a lawsuit, how about some job action? Instructors who do not actually provide any instruction, advisors who do not actually advise and “leadership” that is anything but, should be purged from our school systems. However, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
In an economy where even the most highly educated are operating in CYA (cover you’re a@#) mode, and trying to protect their jobs, the words change or overhaul will fall on deaf ears. I fear Ms. Thompson is about to embark on a long, painful and ultimately expensive journey. The brokenness of the system will be ignored. Her personal life and motivations will be held up for public scrutiny. At the end of the process I doubt she will win any damages or be granted a job. And at this point…I wonder who should be ultimately held accountable for her employability? Was she buying an education, or was she buying the promise of a future job? Did she really understand the difference?
The Post reported this: “Thompson’s mother is proud of her daughter…but acknowledges Trina is upset that all her high hopes haven’t panned out.”
I don’t know of any court decisions that hold institutions liable for high hopes not panning out.