Home > MetNews

Student felt forced into learning program, but sees benefits
By Allison Bailey
abaile19@mscd.edu

The new Reece Learning Community has been problematic in some respects and helpful in others, according to at least one student.

Aaron Ajax, 19, said he did not feel he had a choice when he agreed to participate in the learning community’s pilot program. He is one of 100 new students who were recruited to be a part of the program created to help students at risk of failing out of school.

Ajax said that he didn’t know the program was optional when he became involved.

“That’s not true,” said Janell Lindsey, director of academic success and one of the directors of the learning community. “Students were given the option to be or not be included in the program.”

The learning community was designed to help students through their first semester at Metro and continue to provide support for them throughout their academic careers, Lindsey said.

Ajax was less than pleased with the program when he started.

“In the beginning I was angry about it because I was thrown into the program without even knowing,” he explained. Ajax said he didn’t know he had been chosen to participate in the program until two days before class started.

“Students were being put in all through the summer,” said Lindsey. “It could have happened that he was put in that late, but most of the students knew in June.”

Ajax said he learned that he had been selected to be a part of the community when he registered for classes. He said he was told by a student counselor that he had to speak with Skip Crownhart, another director of the Reece Learning Community.

Ajax thought he had no choice but to be part of the learning community if he wished to attend classes at Metro, he said. While he was never specifically told that the program was his only option, he claims that he was also never told that he could chose to not participate

Lindsey said that Ajax could have refused and been placed on academic probation instead.

“We did tell students that it was optional,” she said. “We sat with the students and told them what the program was and what would be expected of them and some students said, ‘No, I can’t do that.’ So he must have said ‘OK’ at some point.”

“It sounds like this is an anomaly,” said Cathy Lucas, spokesperson for the college. Lucas said that it seemed like Ajax hadn’t understood how the program worked when he became involved.

Ajax believes he was selected for the learning community because of poor grades in high school.

“I applied at Metro State and they put me in what’s called the student success program,” Ajax said. “It’s like academic probation.”

According to Lindsey, the learning community is not an academic probationary program or a program for remedial students. However Lindsey said, students with an academic index of 85 and above were not eligible to take part in the learning community.

An academic index is taken from a student’s high school GPA and their SAT score. According to Daniel Parks at the Metro State admissions office, the average index at Metro in 2004 and 2005 was 93. Students who have an index of 76 to 85 can be provisionally admitted to Metro, but their case must be reviewed by a committee and if they are admitted they are usually placed on academic probation.

The Reece Learning Community puts students in smaller classes that are paired together. The classes have a shared syllabus so that students apply to one class the skills that they learned in the other class.

The program is divided into five groups of 20 students that take classes together with the intention of making them part of a community.

All students involved in the program must sign a contract that details the expectations they must meet. If they do not meet these expectations, they could face suspension, according to a press release about the learning community.

Another aspect of the learning community is the Rowdy Break, a time in the middle of the day when the students have a break and once a week listen to a guest speaker. Lindsey said they would host speakers on topics of health, time management, study skills, money management, scholarships and financial aid, and a motivational speaker will appear around mid-terms and finals.

“I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to do with those,” Ajax said of the Rowdy Breaks. “They’ve had them, but students have not been able to find them.”

Communication was an issue in the program’s first weeks. Lindsey said that students were having a hard time finding the location in the PE Building, and that the program was still new and not all the problems had been ironed out yet.

“I wish I was able to pick my own classes and do the normal college thing,” Ajax said. “Over the next four years, if I’m not able to take the classes I want to take, I’m not going to be happy with it.”

Lindsey said that while the students were not able to pick their own classes during their first semester in the program, they would be able to sign up for whatever classes they chose for the rest of their academic careers at Metro.

Despite the problems he has with it, Ajax said that he would recommend the program because of the smaller classes.

“The teacher knows your name and they really do offer a lot of things to you to help you succeed at Metro State,” he said. “I do think it will help me in some way or another. I’m not going to complain just because of the fact that they are helping me be in college.”