I should have known before I got here. Flights booked to travel with Thunderbird down to Argentina. A stopover built in to visit Lima and Cusco right before Foundations. Then I get an e-mail with different dates than what were told to me, four days earlier. A few hundred dollars in flight change fees and I’m back on track. Was it a mistake, a minor slip up on administration’s part?
Then I see this buying lunch one day. So, I can buy a 16 ounce beverage, and if I want another one, I pay five cents more?
Much has been talked about at Thunderbird about using some of the new Laureate cash to improve buildings around campus. I agree with that idea- my own undergraduate campus, Chapman University, was able to improve its status exponentially through new campus construction projects.
But many fellow students I’ve spoken with echo my thoughts on Thunderbird’s present state- a world-class business school run in ways opposite of what we are learning about in the classroom. I’ve tried to get a straight answer about electives next trimester and I’ve received several different answers. I can’t move sections of the same class to take a specific elective, and when I try to schedule a meeting with the Registrar’s office, no e-mails are returned.
We water our pavement more than our grass, and at times that coincide directly when you have to get to class in the morning. The pub still isn’t open for football on Sundays. I love Thunderbird, and I want the best out of my education and for the school in general. I think it’s time that we find a way to get everyone on the same page, students and administration, about school polices, about what classes we need to take, about who can do modules abroad (not MS/MA students, which isn’t advertised to prospective students). Solving the problems with our school from within will help Thunderbird’s ambitions of becoming an elite business school once more.