Professors are college’s best recruitment tool

Can you imagine sitting in a class with 300 other people? Can you imagine being taught by a teacher’s assistant who is more concerned with his or her graduate degree than your education? Can you imagine not feeling the connection that many of us feel towards our professors?

Perhaps we as a community take for granted the professors that we are lucky enough to encounter at VWC.

As a school, we emphasize the area in which we are located. We tell new students about the beach or the warm weather. These are not reasons why many of us came to this school. Those of us who are concerned with our futures came here for the small classes and the programs which are taught by eminently qualified people.

At the recent scholarship competition we tried to show the new crop of prospective students (who will supposedly become the best and brightest members of the community) the best time that we could. How many of us mentioned that the main reason these prospective students should come here is that they will receive an incredible education?

The scholarship weekend participants received packets of information about VWC. It would have been an appropriate addition to the packets to include information about our best professors. We are quick to put a picture of a surfer on the front of our mailing envelopes and prospectus folders, but shouldn’t we be putting just as much emphasis on our superb academic environment?

The recent budget cuts have affected all of us. Most of us have talked about how our favorite clubs have been affected by these cuts, but we also need to consider some of the other implications.

When good programs (both social and academic) are trimmed down, it may be hard to retain good students and professors. Just think how many students, present and future, could lose out on an incredible educational experience because they have become disenchanted with other campus programs.

We employ some of the best professors in higher education. Nearly 90% of them have doctoral degrees, and the ones who do not are so skilled in their field that the doctorate would just be a piece of paper.

It is time that we make our stellar professors our main focus when it comes to recruiting more students.