The Community College of Denver

Date: Mar 30 2012
Major: Unknown (This Major's Salary over time)
CCD is beautifully located and would initially seem to be a great opp for learning at less expense than a university. Communication and coordination is terrible though. Your personal life, funds, outside work schedule, and future must all be worked to accommodate whatever 1 or 2 day a wk 2 hour available window this or the next person you're sent to has available…often only to be sent to another department with completely different available hours.

No one ever seems to know exactly who to send you to, just the next person/dept to pass you off to.

Students are faced with fewer and fewer available class-times, announced later and later each semester, making it nearly impossible to enroll/schedule what's needed prior to the week before classes start if you're day is not completely open (this used to only be the case with online courses which required no set date/time, but over the past 2 semesters has become common practice with campus courses as well)…and very difficult to do without taking time off work as more and more evening classes are being cut back and most seem to start at the same time rather than in succession, so only one or two can be fit together in a single semester schedule.

Instructors are openly discouraged with pay and job security/status and this comes through in the majority's teaching tone and interest. Some can even be spiteful and combative over dept disagreements and goings on, dividing their own class into supporters and detractors and creating potential for a hostile environment.

There seems to be no standard or across the board expectation for instructors re grading, teaching, or general conduct; some instructors grade by strict matrix and point system, offering current status at all times, but others grade on some curve only deciphered by their own interpretation and decisions as to whether this or that student warrants this or that grade, and only determining such at the end of the semester…some instructors offer detailed syllabi followed to a T, others admit to not having even reviewed the textbook yet and simply state vague areas of possible review and "to be determined"s - Likewise, some have activities, studies, preps, examples etc, while others simply show up, talk a little, assign, and otherwise babysit for the class period…Some instructors are extremely professional, business like, and thorough, others approach the class as a group of new buddies to hang out and joke with - and some can remind more of high school cliques and bullies complimenting and joking with those they feel support from while sniping and assigning unflattering names and assumptions to those they're displeased with.

At the end of the day, the student no longer can switch from a class with an instructor found questionable to the student, but must either complete with the instructor, or withdraw and wait to take with a different instructor at a later semester. Either way, the student is forced to supplement the questionable instructors pay - students get no guarantee of instructor integrity or course quality, and unlike real life with warranties and return/refund policies, the student will take on the debt and pay whether anything suggested is received for their time and trouble or not.