Freshman students have been expressing their views on the new Freshman Success program, and want their voices to be heard about it. They are unsatisfied with the large workload, feel their time has been wasted by the class, and would like to see several changes in the class content.

Students agreed on one thing: Freshman Success should not be mandatory. “We should replace it with something more helpful, or just make full year World Studies,” suggests Freshman Wyatt Munson, “what was taught in the class is unbeneficial to your overall life.” He proposed the class being an optional elective choice, or the time used for Freshman Success instead being used to relieve strain on World Studies teachers by giving them more teaching time.

Such as what Munson mentioned before, a theme of Freshman Success being unhelpful was brought up a lot. Aidan Vastbinder, Freshman, supports this, saying that the class was time used for unimportant matters, and had the potential to be used for things that would be of importance throughout his life. Students say that the class work load was too heavy, and repetitively so. Students also claimed to have had grades under a B due to this work load.

However, Freshman Jayda Mosieur had a much different perspective from the rest. Despite saying that “there was unnecessary busy work,” she also says, “it made me think about a lot of topics, and it was an overall good experience.” She believes the class was impactful and helpful towards her life, and felt the lessons taught were important for everyone to know.

Most people who did not do well in the class, alongside those who did not enjoy the class, blamed the mandatory Power Hour tracking form system. Vastbinder’s interpretation of wasted class time continues, and he went as far as to say that the class would’ve been “at least better if not fine without Power Hour tracking”. I can agree with the common opinion that the Power Hour tracking forms were a big problem, and the workload was too heavy for a class with such little enthusiasm. It’s simply a big stress factor.

To sum it up, students believe the Freshman Success workload is too heavy, the assignments are unenjoyable, and the mandatory Power Hour tracking forms influenced a lot of bad opinions regarding the class. There were good factors, and there were people who enjoyed and learned from the class; however, they were both outweighed by the average negative response. After seeing other’s opinions, as well as my own, It can be assured that the Freshman Success program needs revision. The next generation of Freshman students deserve it.