I really liked how Asif shared his college design so for my extra-cred blog post, I will share some of the difficulties I had when I was designing mine. At first, I had trouble figuring out the budgeting and I realized that although the $100 Million endowment seemed like a lot, it would’ve been disastrous (had it been a real college) if I didn’t budget things carefully. My college is a small college with only 1000 students and reflected what I personally wanted from Brooklyn College: counselors and professors who are available to help students and be able to become their mentors, a performing art center (so that students can take free dance, art, music, acting lessons and even photography lessons and learn how to express themselves freely), self-paced MOOCs to serve as certain class equivalents so that students can graduate early, be full time and stress-free while working two jobs and many more. Also, who would’ve thought building college buildings were so expensive? Fortunately my campus was small.
My next struggle was when I realized that my college slowly began to shift back into the traditional college structure mold. Thankfully I managed to get a hold of the reins and pulled it in place and finally created a college design that proved to my satisfaction. I also had lots of fun creating the admission criteria, which because of the few seats available (250 seats per year) and factoring in the average number of applicants for a private college in NYC, made the acceptance rate of my college super selective (5%). I found myself incorporating many of the things we learned in class: about governance etc…and had fun doing the extra research on which MOOC company and research facility to invest in. It was a nice project to end our final seminar. :'(
Have a great summer everyone!
I had a lot of similar opinions to you. I also created a college with only 800 students, and I also had trouble with the budgeting. I realized that with fewer students, there were fewer faculty, and the budgeting amounts were different and a little more complicated because you had more money to use. Hopefully you were able to figure out in the end.
Lindie, I think it is safe to say that many of us experienced similar struggles when working on our final paper. Designing our ideal college is easier said than done; we all pretty much have core values that we strongly believe in, and wish to see changes that align with our values. However, when considering the practicality and feasibility of executing our plans, then we realize how idealistic our goals may be. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that. I also had this similar roadblock. My employer/mentor once said to me that college students are characterized by their idealistic thinking. We want to change the world, but may not be fully equipped with the resources and/or knowledge to succeed. However, as you’ve shown us, it’s alright to take one step forward, and two steps back. What matters is that we stay true to what we believe in, which in this case is the mission of our ideal college.
I remember struggling with the student to faculty ratio. If I increased the number of faculty, I had to increase the student’s tuition. I originally wanted to create a public institution but there was no way for me to lower the ration with such low tuition rate. I wished for many things for my current college as well as my ideal college but doing this project made me realize that some wishes are only going to stay as wishes. Many weren’t realistic at all. I definitely noticed myself compromising every time a faced a problem and by doing so, I was turning my college into a same old traditional college. I think this project really made me to appreciate what I have right now, to think about flaws that can be changed in a realistic way. I think it was quite interesting process overall.