College Organization and Student Experience

Anne Lee

Nov.28 2024

Categorizing colleges makes it easier to judge them. People care about their safety, and college size influences on crime rates. While overall crime rates at educational institutions are decreasing, larger schools, which contain over 1,000 students report higher incidence rates. Grade point average (GPA), success of matriculants, and community impact are other categories used to analyze and compare schools. 

Colleges may find it enticing to split their colleges into separable parts for better understanding of each solitary unit, because higher metrics in certain categories link to better ranking and reputation. Is judging a school by its separate parts, such as enrollment size, effective?

How about us? How separable is the University of New Haven (UNH)?

College rankings use limited data 

Life is not fair. Neither are college ranking systems.  

Dropout rates, incomes, achievement, and debt are some of the indicators used to assess colleges. Due to inequalities within the United States, socioeconomic class, race, and gender play a role in these indicators. College rankings assess several factors of a school acquired from surveys, media and other data.

Rankings treat an institution of higher education like a standardized product. Ranking websites even sell their data back to colleges to tell institutions what to improve on. 

One ranking does not define an individual’s college experience. While it is impressive that the university has the best forensic science program, this standard works with other aspects of the school to create our student experience. College ranking systems use discrete pieces of data, leaving much to be desired. 

UNH and interdisciplinary studies 

The University of New Haven does have categories that separate people of different areas of studies and interests. The university has five distinct colleges: the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), the Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences, the Pompea College of Business, the Tagliatela College of Engineering and the School of Health Sciences. There are  over 100 undergraduate and graduate programs, and most degrees fit nicely into one of the five colleges. 

Three degrees at the University of New Haven are interdisciplinary: Bachelors of Science (B.S.) in  Biochemistry, Bachelors of Arts (B.A.) in Game Design and Interactive Media and Masters of Science (M.S.) in Information Science. The M.S. Information Science program, for example, involves coursework in the CAS, the Pompea College of Business and the Tagliatela College of Engineering. Interdisciplinary minors include the Race and Ethnic Studies, Ukraine, Russia, and Eurasia Studies and Gender and Sexuality. 

Dr. Margaret F. Savilonis, PhD, is the coordinator of the B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of New Haven. In this program, students choose any two minors for their core coursework, alongside interdisciplinary courses. The program has 42 elective credits, leaving students space to explore and fulfill prerequisites for their minors of choice. Moreover, the elective space gives students the option to switch between minors during their educational journey. By tailoring their own degree, Dr. Savilonis said students could become more adaptable to change and predict future problems.

“It’s a good way for students to be flexible thinkers. The more they learn about different disciplines and concepts and theories and are able to bring those things together, hopefully they'll be able to anticipate some of the problems that we can't even imagine yet,” said Dr. Savilonis.

Interdisciplinary studies combine two or more aspects of academia. As a theater historian herself, Dr. Savilonis has great faith in the success of the program. One of her responsibilities as coordinator of the program is communicating between departments and making sure that interdisciplinary courses are on the roster each semester. 

“As a coordinator, one of the biggest challenges I have with the interdisciplinary program, particularly with those minors, is to make sure that the courses are being offered,” said Dr. Savilonis. “We're still trying to work out those systems to have good communication and also advertising and marketing, because students don't necessarily know the courses exist, or that the programs even exist.” 

Although the classes and bachelor's program in Interdisciplinary Studies are just getting started, Dr. Savilonis is hopeful that it would allow students to gain a broader perspective.  

“My dream [...] would be to have instructors from two disciplines coming together to teach the course. So, students are always seeing a particular issue or topic explored through both of those disciplines, you know?” said Savilonis. 

Currently, the B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies is a program that has existed at UNH for three years. Thirty seven students currently are majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies, combining minors such as public healthcare, marketing, creative writing, and math. The Interdisciplinary Studies program also works with the Yale Prison Education Initiative to provide the incarcerated with a meaningful education despite constraints. 

Recognizing our institutional voice 

An especially idealistic mindset is expressed in UNH’s statement of institutional voice: “the University of New Haven is committed to a core notion of the human good. [...] This commitment is neither partisan nor restrictive of academic freedom. Instead, it marks an acknowledgement of an essential set of values – such as respect for others and a spirit of openness and embedded generosity that welcomes and encourages different opinions, perspectives, and criticisms. These values condition the University’s mission of preparing students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a global society.” 

Rankings give a college a good look. Using separate parts of student life and academic outcomes to quantify how “good” a school is misses a key point of college: to advocate for the betterment of society. There is no scholarship or certificate involved with going out of your way to drive a group of freshmen to a party and making sure they stay safe. What we do in kindness for others does not always have a tangible reward, which also means it often goes unnoticed by the “almighty” college ranking systems. A student’s life, therefore, cannot be simply defined by numbers, categories or rankings—there is something more at play.