Yep, great idea.
Really, I'm in favor of it.
Bring in lots of potential students, particularly 1st generation higher ed students. Always a good thing. Great thing actually.
Issue I have (note I'm not saying problem) is in regards to the tour of the students about campus. I saw several of the groups touring. They were every where and for this type of program they should be. I saw one group just sitting in the grass by Taylor and noted the smiles of the students. This was fun. Many were experiencing a college campus for the first time and one could see the delight in their faces.
My issue? Did we really need to have a a tour in Spanish? I'm not getting this second hand. I saw it and heard it, in Reeve. I know enough Spanish to understand basic things. What I was able to understand from this group as I walked by was it sounded like any other student tour I'd heard go through Reeve...but in Spanish.
Why?
We've got students from abroad on campus. I delight in having them on campus. Foreign students are generally good students and they add to the discussion in upper level classes I've taught here and elsewhere. Great kids for the most part and I'm glad they are here. They don't get a tour here in their native tongue. Like wise, we've got numerous other ethnic groups represented on campus with ESL issues, most noted are the SE Asians (Hmong and Vietnamese) and I don't remember ever seeing tours in their languages. These kids are so rewarding in class. They are almost all first generation students and so damn eager.
But we bus in kids from a Wisconsin High School and speak to them in Spanish, is it me or are we going a bit overboard here? Really, I teach in English. I speak a couple of foreign languages pretty decently (some might suggest English ain't one of them and to that I say: youse guys is all wrong) one because I took it in high school and as an undergrad and one because it was a family language (I'm truly very close to being a goat herder so be careful)
I really would like to know what others thoughts are on this. What do other faculty, staff and students think?
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