Opinion

BECK: Why waste your investments when you really don’t care?

Averi-Alexya Beck is a junior mass communication major from Shreveport, La.

Before arriving at Grambling, I’d always heard negative connotation from my peers about my school of choice.

“You won’t be getting a real education” and “All of the classes are easy” are just two of the things I heard frequently but worded in many different ways.

I always attempted to defend my future school because I did not want to be seen as less than. I wanted to prove to the people around me that my school is not subpar to theirs. Though Grambling, along with most other HBCUs, receive less funding than state schools, the level of education was in the same tier as any other university in Louisiana. This is what I objected up until the day I arrived.

Taking classes at Grambling has not been a total drag. Most professors are trying their hardest to distribute the knowledge needed to transition into corporate America, but many students at this school are the issue.

To start, attendance is a joke. Only 50-60 percent of the class show up on a regular basis. The percentage rises when they hear about a test coming up. This baffles me because I definitely don’t understand how sitting in a class meeting before a test will somehow allow you to absorb all of the information you have missed.

Secondly, when they do show up to class, some students complain about the assignments given by the teacher. I used to think that we were all in school for a sole purpose: to obtain a degree, but obviously that is not the case for all. How do you enroll in school and expect the professor not to give you ANY assignments?

Lastly, there are students who still talk in class while the professor is lecturing. This is one of my pet peeves because it is the ultimate sign of disrespect. Not only are you disrupting your own education that you are paying for, but you are disrupting mine. Where is the respect?

Not all students at Grambling are like this. I’ve actually met some amazing, intelligent individuals, too. I just believe we should become better altogether so Grambling won’t be seen as inferior anymore.