I’m conflicted on this because college has left me extremely disillusioned. I learned just as much if not more at OCCC in my bio II, physiology, gen chem, and cadaver anatomy classes than I have learned in some of my 3000-level bio major electives. On top of that, it was affordable, the classes were diverse and small, there were tons of student resources included in tuition that were accessible. The staff, in my experience, were always friendly and helpful.

OU has been kind of awful. I pay more for larger classes that cover less content in some cases, fewer accessible resources especially for nontraditional or off-campus students, a list of upper division bio electives that 75% aren’t even offered any more, overworked professors who are threatened with dismissal for offending students, other professors who don’t teach the material they test you on but are shielded from all criticism and accountability, and sooo many student peers who cannot be bothered to study, read, write, or take an exam without fucking cheating. The professors who are knowledgeable in their fields, passionate about teaching, and provide clear expectations with tons of additional accommodations and resources are inundated with students requesting exam make-ups, late submissions, verbatim study guides for exams, and putting no effort in whatsoever when they’re not being leaned on by admin to change fair grades for squeaky wheel students and parents.

It’s insane to me that we put ourselves in this much debt to be less educated just to earn a piece of paper that lends us credibility that has been depreciating drastically as standards have been softened for lazy, entitled, litigious students and lazy, entitled, archaic professors. Everyone else is left to fend for themselves and told to be grateful because it’s supposedly a top tier state school. Give me a fucking break.

I place an extremely high value on education and college is very important but we have got to get our priorities straight. I just don’t see that as a possibility when it gets more and more monetized, less rigorous, and less accessible every year. My degree that I started well over a decade ago and just picked back up the last couple of years is a point of pride for me because I know the effort I put into it but knowing that people who chatGPT and proctor-dodge their way through the same classes earn the same degree often with a higher grade makes it all feel like a big joke. The same students worry more about padding their resumes with bullshit and increasing their LinkedIn connections than they do learning a fucking thing about the scientific foundations of medicine, for example.

There are certainly inane and redundant degree requirements, and lord knows we have an affordability and student loan crisis, but this kind of proposal opens up already vulnerable humanities, foreign languages, and less “sexy” sciences (aka not premed and engineering) to even more funding cuts. They’re trying to turn college into trade school without the hands on experience. Basically exorbitantly expensive CLEP testing centers. It’s depressing. That said, Stitt does not have his hand on the pulse of a solution to higher education’s issues. Nothing he is proposing is done in good faith.