UH's degree value low

Post-graduate study required for good job in Hawai`i

Watching my roommate stride across the floor of the Stan Sheriff Center to receive his bachelor's degree on May 15 filled me with hope.

"If Andrew can graduate and get a good job with a degree in geography," I said to myself, "when I get my business degree I won't have any problem finding an even better one."

Unfortunately, a month has passed since the big day, and he has yet to find that good job he so earnestly desires. Once again facing the pressure of finding money for rent, Andrew swallowed his pride and applied for the janitorial position he held prior to graduation.

His ordeal convinces me further that the true value of a UH degree is as testimony to a student's perseverance, rather than proof of his or her intelligence.

For the Fall 1997 semester, the University of Hawai`i (Manoa campus) had about 17,000 students, of which 4,500 were graduate students. Forty-three percent attended school part time, and 38 percent of degree earners were post-graduates.

One explanation for this comparatively high percentage of graduate students suggests that there is a much higher degree-holder to job opening ratio here than on the Mainland. This forces professionals to work for a better degree to improve their resumes.

But as much as I'd like to believe otherwise, it seems to me like the truth of the matter is that UH's degrees simply aren't as impressive as they once may have been.

To those who graduated from the university, a UH degree means only that you were able to put up with six or seven years of bureaucratic nonsense (including and two years of foreign language classes), nothing more.

This is what makes finding a job downtown difficult. UH degrees are everywhere, flooding the market with workers who possess only mediocre skills.

Since there is a comparatively smaller number of people who studied at Mainland schools, and Hawaii's primary and secondary schools have one of the lowest levels of educational quality in the nation [bottom quartile in 2019], employers assume that a Mainland degree is better.

Fortunately, though, this also works in reverse. On the Mainland, employers consider the mere fact you were able to stay focused in Hawai`i long enough to actually pass classes (and for no less than four years!) a feat in itself.

To be fair, though, I admit there are a few fields in which UH either leads the nation of is one of the best A few of these are volcanology, marine sciences, Hawaiian studies, and astronomy.

Still, I can't shake the notion that it's because they are unique to Hawai`i rather than there's a significant difference in teaching abilities.

During the spring, the possibility of eliminating UH's European Languages and Literature department caused a huge outcry. In a refreshing break from the usual policy of unshakeable apathy, students realized that this would make UH object of ridicule among universities, and protested the proposal's consideration.

I wonder if there might be a secret plot behind all of this, because not even the laws of entropy can explain the amount of chaos on this campus. One must not underestimate the pwerful minds working in the state, country, and UH administration.

If our degrees drop in value to the point not even Mainland companies would hire us, we would be forced to stay here, working in Waikiki like small cogs in the great engine of the mighty tourism machine.

Perhaps the mayhem created by budget cuts, class reduction, and the 40 percent tuition increase has not been the result of incredibly poor planning and bad judgment.

It might just be the thing we'd least expect from our administrators: a brilliantly conceived plan by a cunning, unknown entity whose plot to enslave us all is only beginning.