Our View

By:

Shandra Jordan, editor in chief

J.J. Babb, design managing editor

Christopher J. Ortiz, opinion editor

A big selling point for any college or university is its student

to faculty ratio. According to today’s story, CSU has a 17:1 ratio.

We fair well with our Colorado peer institution (CU has a 16:1

ratio) and we hold our own against University of Wyoming

(15:1).

But that 17:1 can be very misleading and misunderstood. To

really know what it means to have 17 students to each faculty

member, the statistic needs to be unfolded a bit more.

How many of these faculty members are full-time, and how many

office hours do faculty members hold to advise and help students?

How do faculty members divide their time between classes, advising

and research?

For incoming freshmen (and naive students), 17:1 can be

interrupted as classroom size and for anyone who has sat through a

lecture in Clark 101, we know that is not true.

CSU should be proud of this ratio but it shouldn’t be a deciding

factor of how well or poorly the university is doing.