Navigating the ins and outs of college can be difficult for anyone. This includes both students who are fresh out of high school and students returning to school after a hiatus.
The criteria for transferring or getting a degree is a whole new system for most. Oftentimes, it is confusing due to the many different factors that play into this system. How many units will I need for this? What classes do I need to take? Is my major even offered at the college that I’ve been looking at?
These are all questions that any student could have when trying to maneuver the arduous task of determining their future. Why must it be so difficult? There might be someone who can answer that question, if you are granted the opportunity to speak to them: counselors.
This is by no means a put-down to the counselors working in the Los Rios Community College District. This is a supplemental plea to administration, or whomever oversees this system, to make the changes needed in order to help your students succeed.
To start, it should be mandatory that counselors have an appointment with students. To say it should be every semester could be overly ambitious. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world we live in, and being that there are somewhere along the lines of 74,000 students, according to the data collected by the LRCCD last semester, it would be difficult. But there should be requisite meetings, especially for students who are new, and for those who are close to graduating or transferring.
If this is not possible, there needs to be a hard look at the counseling system. What would it take for these changes to occur? Is there a possible need for more counselors?
Secondly, there should be an easier way to get in contact with counselors. Try to make an appointment online and you’re met with red tape. That red tape typically being the stone-cold message that no appointments are available.
Try to call and make an appointment and you’re met with red tape and even more confusion. If you call too late in the day, you won’t speak to anyone at all. If you happen to wake up early enough to make the call it seems like you’re in a royal rumble.
Fighting to get a place in line just so you have the opportunity to make an appointment. If you get that lucky, your appointment will most likely be scheduled weeks away.
What if something comes up? That person has to somehow get a hold of the counseling office to set up another appointment for weeks out. Hopefully something doesn’t come up again.
What about the procrastinating students, the ones who waited until the end of the semester to make an appointment? Now they can’t schedule an appointment for weeks out because there are not weeks left in the semester.
This is when they tell you to drop-in. They say, “come in early and maybe there will be an opening for you to see someone, but it is not very likely since we are so busy.”
At this point the future looks grim. You must pick your classes on your own and pray that you do it correctly. You look to the sky. Is that rain? No, it’s the tears American River College collects to pay for their next architectural endeavor.
It is imperative that a better method and a better system be developed. One that puts the needs and lives of students in the forefront. As we move further out of the aftermath of the pandemic, it is likely that the LRCCD will see more growth. And with that growth, the demand for counseling. If things do not change, more students will begin to feel neglected and speak out, rightly so.
