To the editor:

Since schools, colleges and universities are first and foremost for the education of the student, would someone at Kansas University explain the following situation?

I was talking with a sophomore at KU about her first day of classes (Thursday). She had three classes: one had about 400 students and each of the other two had approximately 1,000 students in class. She pays $138 per unit or $414 for each of the 3-unit classes.

KU receives about $414,000 for a class of 1,000 students (or $828,000 for the two large classes), and $165,600 for the class of 400. KU receives approximately $1,000,000 (a million dollars) for the three classes. One professor told the class he has no e-mail address and probably won’t be talking with any of the students outside class during the semester. A video course with the most dynamic professors in the country for survey courses, together with local TAs, would be an improvement.

Would someone at KU explain, from an education viewpoint, why faceless students in a class of 1,000 should pay the same credit fees as a student in a class of 30? Since most of these large classes are probably general education or survey courses, but required for graduation, is KU selling the students short?

Ken Bubb,

Lawrence