By CHRISTINE HOPKINS
Staff Writer

The areas of concern about academics included first-year advising, tenure, student-faculty bonding, course admission, general education requirements, study abroad, grade-inflation, and discrimination complaints.

The dissatisfaction with these areas focused more on specifics than on general discontent.

Ninety-two percent of students are moderately to very satisfied with classes at Bates. They cite thesis work, independent research, specific professors from an array of departments, service-learning and study-abroad as part of students' best intellectual experiences at Bates.

Ninety-five percent of students were moderately to very satisfied with faculty.

Students criticize first-year advising and tenure process

Students felt that their first-year advisers were not truly interested in students' success at Bates.

"First-year advising is a complete waste of student time," was a common comment among the students. However, many students agreed that once they found an advisor within their major, the quality of advising improved greatly.

One student suggested a peer-advising system as a way to improve the current first-year advising process.

Like first-year advisers, tenured professors attracted criticism about not being interested in students, not returning papers on time, and not allowing enough class discussion. "Many professors with tenure ... do not return papers, nor do they allow class discussions," said one comment

Overall, student comments agreed that there exists a mix of good and bad, enthused and disinterested faculty. Some extolled the faculty, who are"excellent," and "seem to know everything there is to know in the world." Others presented a barrage of complaints. One individual stated that the "the faculty as a whole is completely unapproachable, uninterested, and uninvolved."

The area of highest satisfaction was the approachability of professors. Still, quite a handful of comments requested opportunities for greater student-faculty bonding outside of the classroom, with hopes of more community activities and small-school interaction.

Access to classes considered

Student comments also depicted a range in the difficulty and quality of different classes. Students wrote about requirements, the process of getting into classes, and the inflated grades as the real source of problems with academic life.

The procedures of the Office of the Registrar received a slightly less than satisfactory rating."It's not fair to be denied classes when we're paying $28,000 a year," was one student's comment, which reflected the frustration accorded to trying to enroll in classes. Many other students expressed this same sentiment.

As a solution, many suggested creating extra class sections of high demand courses.

On average, students were less than moderately satisfied with general education requirements. Criticism lay both with the stringency the requirements impose, the lack of multicultural requirements, and with specific requirements that find valuable.

"I do not like the science requirements," was one student's plain and simple response to questions of requirements.

"What in God's name does every single student have to gain from taking Anthro 101?" wrote another comment about the social science requirement

Underlying these specific complaints was a feeling, expressed by a few respondents, that students did not have enough time to take all the courses they wished under the current multitude of requirements.

Discrimination and inflated grades cited by students

Seventeen point five percent of students reported discrimination in the class