I find as I return to De Anza, that the instructors have too much power, and when some of them abuse that power, they are not held accountable. This must change. It does not follow the school’s motto of “striving for excellence.” Why on Earth would a teacher refuse an education to a student who is willing to work hard to learn?

I am an alumni member of De Anza’s graduating class of spring 1999. After earning an AA degree, I was off to San Francisco State University to continue towards my goal of earning a Bachelor of Arts in Cinema. The saddest part of that journey is to learn that SFSU is extremely crowded with students seeking the same major. The good news is that there are a few classes offered at De Anza that can still qualify as transferable towards SFSU’s Cinema Major requirements.

Well, I already ran into the same problem here as I did at SFSU. The class was closed, and I would have been number seven on the waiting list. It has been my experience since I began to attend at De Anza in the fall of 1997, that most classes would become available as students will inevitably drop the class you want to get into. If you sit in on the first few classes, as room becomes available, the instructor will always let you in.

This has not been the case this quarter. There is only one instructor who teaches [the class I wanted in that] department. While the first class day was indeed overflowing, the subsequent classes lost at least seven students. I know this because I was there, at the second, third, and fourth classes. There were only 17 of 25 students there, not counting myself. Even when the official class roster printout showed 23 of 25 students officially enrolled, the instructor refused to allow me and another student who is disabled to add this class. I saw the dean of the department, and they informed me that the instructors have final say on who is allowed into the class after the first day.

The trouble with this is, the instructor continues to blame the school, being a public institution, and its policies. The instructor told me “I am sorry, but my hands are tied.” This would be a neat trick, to tie your own hands together. Let’s face it, instructors do need to structure their classes and to use their own methodology to teach the class, but there is no reason to blame the school or others when they make the decision to refuse admittance to a student.

Where is the administrative chain of command here? I have spoken with several members of Admissions and Records, all of whom share my frustration for a situation like this, where a student cannot be told the truth of the matter, and where teachers have far too much power when it comes to these types of situations. Teachers must be responsible for their actions.

They should not hide behind some cloak of secrecy. We get enough of that in the world beyond the school’s borders. Instructors should be obligated to serving the students who want to learn, who pay for the privilege.

After all, if we students did not pay to come here and learn, where would these teachers be? And what about the administrators who are supposed to protect the interests of the students? Just like in politics, it seems, those who serve the public at large tend to forget who pays their salaries, and whom they work for.