ARIN FROIDL | Reporter
Every year, the incoming freshman class is required to take a once a week, one-credit-hour class. This year the classes were titled “Like No Other,” and each class had a different theme such as “Throwing Shade…s of Color” or “Harold and the Purple Crayon: Drawing for Success.”
The point of these classes is to help the freshmen adjust to college life and become accustomed to how Lindenwood runs.
However, instead of these classes being a useful tool for freshmen, they are merely a huge waste of student and teacher time.
Meeting once a week for 50 minutes, the majority of class time focuses on teaching students how to use various resources, such as Canvas and the Student Portal, campus resources or registering for classes. While some class meetings focus on topics like diversity or marketing, most of class time is spent teaching students things they either already know or have already learned in other classes.
These classes are pointless because each freshman is assigned a major-specific adviser at the beginning of the year to assist the student with adjusting to college and help them with their major.
I found my LNO class to be a huge waste of my time because everything we discussed I had either learned in one of my other classes or my adviser had explained it to me.
[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]My male friend who is a theater major was placed in a female-oriented women empowerment class.[/perfectpullquote]
Students were placed haphazardly in classes that didn’t remotely pertain to their majors. I’m a mass communications major, and I originally was placed in a drawing-focused class until I transferred to a different section. My male friend who is a theater major was placed in a female-oriented women empowerment class.
Most of the freshmen I know saw their LNOs as just a repeat of what they already learned from high school or a waste of time; they need to focus on classes they need to get their degrees.
Freshman Noelle Redman said that she “should have more time to work on classes that are worth more than one credit.”
Even though these classes don’t seem to take up much time, in the greater scheme of classes, they require more time than 50 minutes a week. The classes all have homework and finals, many of which are inconveniently on Friday of finals week, and take up time students should be using on classes that are important.
When we discussed diversity and racial tensions in my LNO class, I felt like I was learning something, and I enjoyed the class. However, much of class time was spent reteaching things we learned during our three-day long orientation in August.
By forcing freshmen to take these classes and forcing teachers to teach them, Lindenwood is wasting our time and our money that could be put to actual positive use on campus.
