School backs out of 'Pact'

The Bloomington Faculty Council, in charge of governing much of our university's academic policy, decided on Tuesday, Dec. 3, to end the GradPact program. The University contract with undergraduates, once referred to by IU President Myles Brand as, "a key to our building of 'America's New Public University,'" guaranteed the school would waive the cost of extra classes if a student was unable to graduate within four years.\nPeopleSoft, the new system vendor, will cost too much for IU to maintain; replacing the system would cost over $200,000 and almost $60,000 a year to keep up to date. These hefty costs are a mix of the additional time and work needed to program GradPact's limits into the scheduling software.\nCouncilmember Erik Bucy said the decision to end GradPact shouldn't be based on technology hassles. "Policy on any level should not be dictated by computer software," he said ("GradPact 'broken' by faculty," Wednesday, Dec. 4). "That said, maybe GradPact should be discontinued, but I would like to hear from advisers, those who use it on the front lines."\nStudents use it on the front lines. How about hearing what we have to say about the program?\nGradPact was a wonderful idea for those undergrads who knew what educational and career paths they wanted to take. By completing semester and year benchmarks required within specific majors, students enjoyed the perks of being able to take non-required courses that simply interested them rather than strictly those they needed. Other not-so-focused students who chose to do this might have found themselves struggling to fit in required classes at a later date.\nBut then there are those who are unsure of what they want to study. If a student declares a major and becomes a GradPact student, he or she runs the risk of following a course path, only to find it really wasn't what he or she wanted to pursue. Later, the student wants to change majors, but being in GradPact could potentially set him or her back, resulting in an extended graduation date. In short: a waste of time.\nBesides, only 35 percent of those eligible students actually enroll in the GradPact program and only a third stay enrolled throughout their later college years. \nBFC members admitted GradPact was initially used to convince students and parents that graduation from a state university in four years was not impossible. The program guidelines will remain intact, such as major course requirement outlines. But the school is under no obligation to pay for any undergrad who doesn't complete his or her degree in four years.\nTo make sure more students complete their degrees in an expected timeframe calls for a give and take situation. We simply need to become more aware of what's expected of us within our given majors, and advisers need to continue doing their jobs of leading their students down the right paths.\n-- Jackie Corgan for the Editorial Board