Just like a game of chess, all of my moves were carefully planned out in advance. Before the start of my first year at UCLA, I had chosen specific classes I wanted to take each quarter so I could successfully fulfill my double major requirements without having to take excessive summer school classes. What I did not realize was that my opponent, priority enrollment, would not let me have a turn to move my pieces. Instead, I had already lost before I’d even begun. Checkmate.
My dreams of having a decent summer are now completely crushed. I am already signed up for four miserable classes during summer session just because I did not have a chance to enroll in the specific classes I wanted.
Many UCLA students share my pain, and next year, students in the honors program will also share in the suffering. Effective fall 2009, the Undergraduate Council of the Academic Senate voted unanimously to drastically reduce priority enrollment numbers.
UCLA students schedule their classes around many different commitments. Athletic commitments are no more important than any other commitment at UCLA and should not be privileged. UCLA students pay their tuition to enroll in classes and deserve to be treated equally. Priority enrollment should be completely eliminated.
Students in the Honors program or the Academic Advancement Program, as well as students enrolled in General Education Clusters and ROTC, will all lose their priority enrollment in the fall. However, a select few, including student athletes, will keep their priority enrollment because they require “special circumstances” to accommodate practices.
It is understandable that student athletes have commitments that must transpire at a specific time of the day, but so do many other students at UCLA. One of my majors is jazz performance, which requires that I be at multiple jazz ensembles and combo rehearsals. These are commitments, just like practices and games for student athletes, which cannot be changed.
One of the greatest attributes of UCLA is that the students are extremely diverse and are uniquely talented in many different areas.
However, to say that one specific talent is more important than another is absolutely absurd. To say that students in the honors Program, music department, and every other UCLA student who takes on a serious commitment are less deserving of priority enrollment is complete discrimination.
Students in the honors program understand the need to reduce priority enrollment, but feel deceived because priority enrollment was guaranteed with being in the program.
“I understand how this will even the playing field and make the enrollment process more fair,” said Jenny Noonan, a first-year sociology student in the honors program. “It’s just disappointing because priority enrollment was a major factor in my decision to be part of the honors program.”
Some honors students think the extra classes required to be in the program are now not worth the hassle and are contemplating dropping the program.
“Priority enrollment was a major factor for me when I considered whether or not to enroll in the honors program,” said AJ Mojica, a first-year biology student in the honors program. “With the sudden removal of priority enrollment, I don’t know if the extra workload is justified.”
Priority enrollment clearly creates discrimination against students who are not “special” enough to receive priority enrollment, and really has no place at this university. There really is only one fair solution for all of this: eliminating priority enrollment altogether.
The average UCLA student has multiple important commitments that require them to schedule classes around those commitments. The Undergraduate Council of the Academic Senate should not have the right to determine which commitments merit priority enrollment. Students should be given equal opportunity to enroll in classes. If they are not lucky enough to enroll in the classes they want, then it is their responsibility to make up classes in their own time or make adjustments with their commitments.
UCLA is a public institution that should not be giving special treatment to a few choice groups of individuals. No one is too good for extra summer school, compromising commitments, and getting screwed by enrollment.
If you are considering dropping the honors program, e-mail Dunn at sdunn@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.