As I walk around campus, I can tell mid-semester stress is in the air. People are no longer smiling from spring break; the Union is busy later in the night as weeks progress. More extracurricular activities are having events, and end of the year event planning has begun.
With all of this going on­—planning, group project, and study group meetings, etc. are happening all around campus. Usually, people come into the discussion with a purpose, sometimes many objectives listed on an agenda. Sometimes, meetings are scheduled within a certain time interval, with the expectation that results will be determined within that period. However, what should one do if that time interval or the agenda becomes ineffective?
Well, this has become a big concern for me recently. As I enter one of my busiest weeks here at RPI, I realize how inefficient some of my meetings are. I realize that some people may be able to put aside more time to certain tasks than myself, but I ask that they respect those of us who do have other tasks requiring our time. It upsets me when people tell me to shut up when I remind them about our agenda, or when people deviate from it with something that does not affect the entire group, or even a majority. This sometimes does not allow the original goal to be completed, or the meeting will run over time. This is frustrating and sometimes just ineffective.
As leaders of organizations, maybe our ineffectiveness is not our fault. RPI stresses the importance of becoming strong leaders. Yet, unless we really seek out our own answers, they don’t really give us the necessary tools to become these people. As a biomedical engineering major, I am required to take the Professional Development series. Shouldn’t these classes teach me the skills I need to maximize my time? Maybe I cannot draw the connections, but I do not see how a weekly two hour lecture really helps me make strides in becoming an effective leader. In Professional Development I, we learned about running effective meetings, but can a class that meets once a week for maybe two hours each really solidify our skills?
While many of my peers do not see the need for Professional Development II, I do. I just question how useful this class is the way it is right now. I cannot see how receiving lectures on the topics, even with examples, is supposed to help me with skills that are grasped by personal experience. I dread every Wednesday afternoon as I sit in class learning about my professor’s family and how a student whined about her grade. I’d rather learn things that directly apply to me. I also do not see why engineers are the only people that need to take the Professional Development courses. Is Rensselaer trying to say that only engineers need classes to become leaders? Are other majors not good enough or do we just lose at life as leaders?
I debated writing this article for a few hours since I cannot know the response that will come from this. Recently, I learned how an article can impact Rensselaer in a positive way. Now, with a few hundred students taking Professional Development each semester, this complaint has to have been brought up before. Can we work together and figure out a better way than a dreadful two credit class?
