Nightmare at AU, Distraught Parent!

Colleges & Universities American University
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<p>I have just graduated from American University, Phi Beta Kappa, with honors, and double majors. I would like to recommend to the distraught parent who has had a nightmare at AU that she and her daughter talk to the daughter’s advisor and dean. There must have been some mistake in the communication with your daughter. I am sure that it can be cleared up with a phone call. Further, I know that the experiences your daughter will have at the orientation program later this summer–when most students register–and throughout her four years will be superlative. She will have the classes she needs in her major.</p>

<p>My experiences over four years at AU are the opposite of what seems to have been your daughter’s impressions of what advising and student services are like at AU. In fact, the university bends over backwards to meet student needs and to provide academic coursework at every level, from freshman through senior year. I have found American University to be totally responsive to student needs and dedicated to educating all its students and to helping them meet their academic goals and to having all the courses they need in their major fields of study. Further, and most importantly, students at AU have regular opportunities to work closely with dedicated advisors and with gifted, caring professors in every class. The opportunity to work closely with faculty and to take the classes you need is part of the AU educational experience. Please look again at this great university.</p>

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<p>cadmiumred, I just noticed this in one of your posts: “One of the art professors during the accepted students day told me that if we emailed her, she would have a personal workspace in one of the studios.” Sounds like this contact is a way into the system. I’d have you daughter email that professor outlining her dilemma and the roadblocks she’s encountered and asking for assistance. The prof knows best how to navigate through the system and will have an interest in making your daughter’s experience a positive one. It’s certainly worth a try.</p>

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<p>Dear cejohnson87:</p>

<pre><code> Thank you for your post. She did email and we also called her advisor many times who kept insisting that she could not do anything about this because the POLICY was that upperclassmen have precedence over the art classes, even the ones she needs to build the 12 credit PRE-requirement to declare herself as a Bachelor of Arts major. There is an 18 credit pre-requirement for declaring the B.F.A. major. She CANNOT obtain these credits if they by POLICY, can’t seem to break or change the policy of upperclassmen having precedence over the classes the freshman need. Her advisor said earlier in the week that there are NOT enough professors to teach the classes and thus, there are not enough sections. Also, her advisor went on vacation 2 days ago, right during a time she was supposed to be available for freshman to help them with registration questions. She is supposed to work especially with intended art majors but did not know anything about how my daughter could bypass the filled basic art studio classes and take the advanced classes. She admitted that she doesn’t know the policies of the art department and did not go out of her way to help my daughter. My daughter is still in high school taking finals and graduating, which you may not understand. I had to go during the school day to the art registrar in person to try to find out what was going on because the ADVISOR TOLD US to do this!!! You cannot just call the Dean or Provost directly. They make you go through their assistants FIRST!!! If you know a way around all of this please tell me.
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<p>Upsetmom,
We were told that she was new to working with freshman. My daughter was sent a rough schedule of her classes via email which did not include any studio art classes just a non-art substitution for the ones she needs. There are very LARGE waiting lists filled with upperclassmen for these classes. cejohnson87, we believe there is an inherent problem with the art department and the art program itself. The administration is just not on to of it and doesn’t seem to want to be based on my daughter’s uphill battle with all of this. At the moment we are being told that the assist. to the provost and art dept staff is trying to contact the art department head to find out how she could get into an advanced art class.
They are all still waiting for him to respond to their contacts. We even wrote to him a week
ago. He still has never responded. The problem now is their not being able to reach the art dept. chair is holding up registering my daughter in all of her classes. They are pushing for her to decide whether to hold a communications substitution course in her schedule, in case they can’t SIMPLY place her in an art studio course!!! It is so frustrating. The schedules for freshman are being chosen now and his problem is holding up her definite placement in all classes. cejohnson87, my daughter has emailed, and I have called everyone possible including the President’s office with no results as yet.</p>

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<p>Cadmiumred,</p>

<p>My opinion:
The writing is on the wall. At some point in the future, AU might be a good school for a freshman studio art major, but right now, it is not. Surely she is the only freshman artist who chose AU this fall, and she is fighting an awful uphill battle. I really think it is time to get out of Dodge.</p>

<p>Augh - too many cliche’s :slight_smile: but you know what I mean</p>

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<p>Last year we met with the head of the music dept and one of our deciding factors in not taking AU more seriously for D (despite their $22K merit scholarship) was the fact that for half of our meeting the dept head spoke of all her wishes for the future direction of the department, but tempered everything with “but I can’t make any real promises that this will happen due to all of the beuaracacy and red tape here.”</p>

<p>I mean this was the head of the department who asked to meet with us as D auditioned for a music scholarship, and ultimately we left that meeting with the impression that she was very frustrated. What kind of impression does that give a perspective student and their family?</p>

<p>Then on top of that she made a real snafu regarding D and never offered her a music scholarship in our initial package. When I called and asked about it after D rec’d $20K in academic and leadership $, she said “oops! she was one of my top students but I didn’t offer her any money because I didn’t have her on my list of applicants.” She called me back to say the problem was that she didn’t scroll down through the whole list and inadvertantly left out kids from the end of the alphabet. So no money for them. She had allocated all of her talent money (to student letters A to R) and admitted to me that some kids got as much as $8K. When I asked her if she could do something about this (we had gone to DC to audition for the talent $ and she admitted that D was a top student), she finally got back to us a week later with a $2K offer.</p>

<p>But we could never shake the fact that D probably would have gotten an extra $6K a year if only she scrolled down!</p>

<p>All in all not very impressive. D is at NYU.</p>

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<p>MommaJ:</p>

<pre><code> Thank you. D and I already did this and no response.
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<p>The funny thing is that the AU Fine Arts Department was incredibly solid in the 1980s. They had Alan Feltus, an excellent painter now in Europe I believe, on staff helping to mange it. My good friend who is an art professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, obtained her grad degree there after her degree from Carnegie Mellon, and praised the quality of the department in those days. The Katzen Center wasn’t even a thought then. Now, they have a beautiful dedicated arts facility without the strength of the department behind it? Washington D.C. had a strong arts community in general in the mid-80’s. In fact, AU collected and purchased many famous works by D.C. artists which have been on display through the years. So, what I am saying, is that at some point there was appreciation and dedication to the arts at AU.</p>

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<p>It seems that the recent answers you have received from AU are pretty consistent: they are not able and/or willing to cater to your daughter’s wishes.</p>

<p>The fundamental problem–the thing that started all of this–is that one or more people gave you bad information and/or misled you and your daughter during the accepted students day. That’s a shame. But it’s clear and understandable that the policy and procedures of the institution are not going to be changed to make up for the mistakes of a few people.</p>

<p>You have two choices. Your daughter can (a) accept things as they are, continue with enrollment at AU, and try to make things better once she’s on campus or (b) enroll somewhere else.</p>

<p>My advice is to enroll somewhere else. This episode has already caused enough heartache and given your daughter a poor opinion of AU. First impressions are hard to overcome, and my guess is that if she chooses to attend AU with this bad experience in mind, she will end up being disappointed in the end. So it’s better to just move on to somewhere else and put all of this in the past. I hope you can convince the university to refund your deposits–they definitely should, in this case.</p>

<p>While and 18-year-old will have a hard time believing this, the adults who have followed this situation know that it is not the end of the world. Disappointing, yes. Catastrophic, no.</p>

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<p>Dear Piswillia:</p>

<pre><code> I still feel that AU should make good on this. If they have a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree requiring 18 credits of studio art and 12 credits for the B.A., just to declare the major Sophomore year, then they are obligated to give you the courses needed freshman year. It is not just a few people misleading us. There is an actual established program in the catalogue of courses and programs not being acknowledged. Also, As I said a million times, AU themselves, online recommend Freshman intended studio art majors take the studio courses my daughter needs. Right in the Freshman Online Guide!! It is not just a few people as you are stating. Just transferring and running away from the problems after we accepted their offer of admission, is not my way of doing things. My daughter has stated she wants this to work out. She can’t believe that they will not try to rectify the situation! I hope and pray that they do.
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<p>Upsetmom</p>

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<p>cadmiumred</p>

<p>In this last post you are making it clear that you are trying to follow your D’s desire to work things out. And she is motivated by a disbelief that this situarion is happening and that it will work out because it must. I totally understand her perspective. As a teenager, her life experience has probably (thankfuly) not been filled with too much disappointment and has lead to her obvious sense of optimism.</p>

<p>But ultimately the question is: do you share her optimism? If you do, then hang in there and proceed as you have.</p>

<p>But if you have misgivings (as a jaded adult), and no longer maintain quite the optimistic nature of your D, I would listen to yoiur inner voice and the advise of others and at least start the ball rolling on a plan B. That way you are covered either way. The longer you wait on a plan B (enrolling somewhere else?) the harder it may be to actually implement it for this fall.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

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<p>Dear Uskoolfish:</p>

<pre><code> I guess that I am trying to be optimistic for my daughter. I feel that the art dept. seems to be experiencing some type of rocky transition of which unfortunately we are in the middle. I am willing to hang on longer and follow through with everyone involved and assuming they are professional, will finally understand and correct the problems. It is ironic that some of the posters like pswillia and cejohnson who graduated from AU years ago, are pushing us to cut and run. They seem to have the least faith in their own alma mater!
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<p>Upsetmom</p>

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<p>I stand corrected. CEjohnson87 did not push us to transfer, just Pswillia.</p>

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<p>It seems to me, from my limited experience, that these things have a way of working themselves out. Or at least it did for my d., who also seemed to be up against a bunch of rules and enrollment caps, etc. That doesn’t say your experience will be the same.</p>

<p>But, really, doesn’t this all amount to the reality that one person (the head of the art dept.) took a vacation in the week or so following graduation?, and extended it through the Memorial Day weekend? I imagine from what you wrote (I wouldn’t know otherwise) that this is the person able to give you a clear yes or no, and that virtually all your contacts are telling you the same thing. (By the way, the same thing happened to my d. and it took a week for her to meet with pianist-in-residence, who was on tour at the time, and once that happened, doors opened all over the place.)</p>

<p>I hope things work out well for your d. (whether or not she decides to stick with AU.)</p>

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<p>Dear Mini:</p>

<pre><code> I hope that it is that simple. I just hope that we do not have to go through this every time she wants an art course, and that they realize that the school actually has a B.F.A. program? Also, as my daughter said that it is a little scary that they do not have any concept about artists, the development of an art student’s skills and the existence of the B.F.A. and B.A. programs. How can you not let an B.F.A. art major to be, not take the 18 credits starting freshman year as indicated to us by the art registrar? If there is anyone on the AU staff reading these posts, I call upon you to help my daughter get her studio course, please. Isn’t this simple?? Most schools just add you in a course without waiting lists galore. You need more sections of studio art, yes?
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<p>Upsetmom</p>

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<p>Again, you need to take 18 credits of studio BEFORE declaring yourself as an art major to apply to the BFA program sophomore year. You need 12 credits of studio art BEFORE trying to declare yourself as an art major for the Bachelor of Arts program. And most importantly, hey, if you came to AU to be an art major, might they let you take an art course???</p>

<p>Upsetmom</p>

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<p>Look - it seems to me that the registrar did what registrars do - give priority for courses to upperclasspersons. I can’t imagine them doing it any other way. At the point students registered for classes (including my d.), they wouldn’t even have known who was planning to attend as a first year. Now the question is whether the head of the art department (or any department) can override the standard registration once it is known who is attending, and whether that is standard procedure for BFA students. I don’t know the answer to that for the art department. I do know the answer in at least one part of the music department. Certainly your d. is not the first BGA student faced with this seeming Catch-22. I would assume they do indeed have a way to resolve it. </p>

<p>But I guess we’ll see.</p>

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<p>I really loved my college experience at AU. The access I had to professors and university administrators was exceptional, and I have continued fostering these relationships even as an AU grad. The university has high expectations for its students, but it will give them all the support they need to achieve. At AU, students are not numbers. </p>

<p>I am not a graduate of the AU arts program, but I have been impressed with what I have seen of the program. Throughout my college career, I frequently attended student symphony and chorus concerts, theater, and art exhibits and have always been impressed by the fantastic student talent (and presumably the excellent faculty instruction).</p>

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<p>Upsetmom,</p>

<p>It is entirely possible that this will be resolved when your daughter arrives on campus for the fall. As I said earlier in this thread, students drop courses all the time, and professors make exceptions during the first days of classes. I know that I’ve increased enrollment in my own courses up to two students over the limit (more would have exceeded the room size and compromised the quality of instruction).</p>

<p>Make sure she is on the waiting list for those courses she wants to take. Sometimes, albeit rarely, a department will add another section if the waiting list is long enough.</p>

<p>To facilitate her enrollment in the course, She MUST show up for the first class, even if she’s not registered for it, with a small sample of her artwork. Either after or before class, she can approach the professor, explain that she is a freshman going for an BFA, and that she needs the course. Professors in the arts RARELY turn away talented students. If you know who is teaching the course now, your daughter can contact him/her over the summer to make her case. Again, please make sure that she, and not you, composes and sends this email – although you can help her with it. I was not kidding when I said that you’ll be tuned out more readily than your daughter will be, provided that her communication is calm and logical. I’m sure she can spare an hour out of her schedule to take care of this very important matter. If nothing else, she can wait until after graduation.</p>

<p>I want to emphasize that your situation happens all the time to freshman, in universities across the country. Sometimes it matters (as in your case, or in a tightly scheduled major such as engineering), or sometimes it’s just a huge disappointment for the student. Upperclassmen always get priority registration (they probably registered around the time your daughter was receiving her acceptances), with seniors going first. After the first year, it gets much, much easier, so what your daughter is experiencing now is unlikely to be repeated in subsequent years unless she misses the registration times. She may have a few trouble spots for second-semester registrations, but, after this, she’ll know exactly how to handle it.</p>

<p>Since you and your daughter are wedded to AU, consider this problem as invaluable instruction for how to navigate the system. It will work out. I’ll bet that she’ll be able to take at least one of the courses she wants.</p>

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<p>Seems to me that this could be approached as an exercise in problem solving. I just finished Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Outliers. One of the points he makes is that intelligence is not enough for success, that it takes problem solving ability. He compares and contrasts two brilliant men, who had two totally different outcomes in their lives, due to their problem solving ability.</p>

<p>This hit home for me, personally. I realize now that I probably have made it too easy for my son, solving his problems for him, and now he is going to have to learn to do it for himself. I want to learn to be his coach, if that’s possible. But I am going to have to watch from the sidelines. He’s 18 and it’s not my job to solve problems for him anymore.</p>

<p>cejohnson</p>

<p>Thanks for what you wrote. My son will be attending AU in the fall and I had gotten that impression of the school from our visit, but its nice to have it reinforced.</p>

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<p>Dear MomWaiting and Kathy:</p>

<pre><code> I think that Add/Drop wil not help, because there are very long waiting lists with Upperclassmen already on the waiting list, who were placed on the list right away. The staff told me this. Kathy and CE Johnson: It is a BIG PICTURE problem with the spaces in studio classes for intended Bachelor of Fine Arts Majors not being placed aside as they do at AU for Communications, and SIS incoming freshman. Kathy: this situation does not in any way involve simple problem solving for a 17 or 18 year old. The problem is in the administration and their not wanting for what ever reason, to support the art program. The question is whether they can change their attitudes before my daughter begins there. She is studying today for an intense math final and cannot change AU fundamental policy and attitude, Kathy. When you offer a B.F.A. program like AU, that means there are NUMEROUS studio art classes required before graduation that my daughter needs to take. They just need to recognize that they do have a B.F.A. program as designated in the catalogue and at Accepted Students Day.
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<p>Happy Memorial Day all.</p>

<p>Upsetmom</p>