USG candidates focus on bettering education

Editor's Note: This is the third story in a five-part series concerning issues of the Undergraduate Student Government presidential and vice-presidential elections. This story focuses on education.

Perhaps more than any other issue, education plays a part in every student's life at the University.

Candidates for USG president and vice president discussed what the University should do to make education better.

More funding from the state can help the University bring down class sizes, Casagrande said.

"It's time for USG to stand up and make undergraduate education a priority for the administration," Casagrande said.

Mario Ciabarra and Allison Szabaga

Ciabarra said he wants to post course notes on the World Wide Web, which he said could help students study better and encourage professors to make class attendance more important.

"We're all here for one common purpose -- to improve ourselves through education," Ciabarra said.

Roshani Herath and Christine Muchi

Students need to make the most out of their education, Muchi said, and USG can help by using Academic Assembly to communicate with the University Faculty Senate.

"Our job is to make sure (the University) keeps its promise," to focus on education, Herath added.

Rocco Impreveduto and Marc Nathan

Two areas where improvement is most feasible are improving University facilities and better organizing classrooms to accommodate varying class sizes, Impreveduto said.

"Why are you paying money to go here if the facilities aren't going to accommodate you?" Impreveduto said.

Todd Krout and Karen Skomorucha

The English proficiency of teaching assistants is a concern, Krout said, adding that he wants a program to help both students and teaching assistants have a better learning environment.

"We have to look at (education) realistically," Krout said, adding that USG is not able to reduce class size at the University.

Matt Lohr and B. J. Werzyn

Some educational problems, such as large class size, are likely to stay a problem, but USG can be effective at taking students' views to the administration, Lohr said.

"All that USG can really do is represent the students' opinions," Lohr said.

Andrea Prinzi and J. P. Jaworski

General education requirements are important to make sure students in every major are not ill-informed in any areas, Prinzi said.

Teaching assistants who speak English poorly are only a problem in some classes, Prinzi added.

Kornelius P. Spankum and Kendra Ciesla

Students need to become a greater focus for the University, but students need to focus more on their own academics, Ciesla said.

Ciesla also said she worked with USG for several years to try to get teacher evaluations published for students.