Undergraduate education needs people, not buildings

By Gordon C. Zaft
Arizona Summer Wildcat
August 27, 1997

To the Editor:

The article on the IIF ("IIF building designed to help all students," Aug. 26, page 1) claims that it will be 'designed to help all students' and goes on to quote Melanie Freedman as saying "it's a one stop shop for any UA student." The tone of the article suggests that administrators are concerned that students think the IIF is only for freshmen.

Is it any wonder that students think so? The entire thrust of the propaganda campaign for the IIF emphasized it as serving freshmen. The building summary in the article in the Wildcat itself says "Will serve 4,500 first-year students."

The IIF is the administration's way of 1) reacting to the Regents' continued concern over undergraduate instruction, and 2) using #1 as a lever to get more funding from the Regents. Any bureaucrat who's worth his salt would use the situation as ours have.

Unfortunately, the IIF is a smokescreen on the part of the administration and the Regents to attempt to 'solve' a problem by throwing technology at it. The fact of the matter is that the problems with undergraduate education, and specifically retention of freshmen, won't

be solved by the IIF at all. Any educator would tell you that to solve this problem requires, not buildings and fancy technology, but PEOPLE. Dedicated, committed people. Enough people to address freshmen as people and not as numbers. Enough people (with the right training) to be there when freshmen (in particular) need answers and don't know where to turn.

I don't blame the administration for using the Regents' concern to get money out of them -it's part of their job. But to claim that the IIF is going to solve these problems is deceptive and irresponsible.

To claim, on top of that, that the IIF is going to help all students is absurd. It may help some freshmen, and a few upperclassmen, but it's almost certainly not going to help the graduate students who comprise almost 1/4 of the student body population.

Gordon C. Zaft

Electrical and computer engineering graduate student