Don’t Put Blame on ‘Super Seniors’

Your Feb. 20 article, “Pushing Students to Finish in 4,” refers to “super seniors,” who have taken longer than four years to graduate. As a senior at California State University, Fullerton, I feel that state educators should look at the real problem before stating that they are “increasingly unsympathetic to the plight of ‘super seniors’ ” that “tap California for tens of millions of dollars annually.”

Most majors require prerequisite classes, which must be taken before you can proceed to the next class.

This semester, a communications prerequisite was offered four times with a maximum capacity of 20 per class to accommodate almost 2,100 communications majors. The unlucky 2,020 will have to spin the roulette wheel next semester in hopes of being one of the chosen.

This routine is quite familiar to most students and it is a common occurrence every semester, especially when you do not have many classes left to take.

It is not by choice that it will have taken me five years to finish my degree. Had I known the university offered a program to get me hard-to-get classes so I could graduate in four years, I would have been the first to enlist.

I finished my first two years’ worth of transferable units on schedule, but only by attending four community colleges simultaneously.

As more people realize that a college degree is a necessity in the workplace, additional classes are not added to accommodate the increasing number of students.

If the state wants students to graduate quickly, stop blaming the students and start being accountable.

Either add more classes or publicize the “loose contract” to guarantee students hard-to-get classes so they can graduate in four years.

I’ve been at Cal State for three years and I have never heard of this program. I do not want to stay in school longer than I have to, but I am entitled to the education I paid thousands of dollars for.

LISA N. TRAN

Huntington Beach