OPINION
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 • 7
EDITORIAL
Assigned advisers will help student success Having an assigned adviser could be like having a best friend, minus the boy talk. To make the advising experience personalized and streamlined, all students now have a specific adviser to schedule appointments with. Overall, the new advising system should improve students’ advising sessions. Being able to have one go to adviser seems efficient because students wouldn’t have to spend time each session bringing a new adviser up to date. Their “friend” in the advising office would already know their students’ goals and thoroughly understand their academic history. For freshman or first time students, having an assigned adviser could make the experience feel less overwhelming and more manageable. While figuring out where the bathrooms are on campus might be a struggle, hopefully knowing who to talk to about classes wouldn’t be. The college implemented the new advising system to better demonstrate the “one college” idea. The sentiment means that there should be a unified system committed to supporting the needs of all students. To keep students at the college, it was decided that all students would be assigned an adviser before they step foot into the classroom and until they graduate. The new system will most likely be helpful for those who need a reliable person to quickly turn to when they have a general question about
Tj Favela/The Collegian
classes or registration. For information pertaining to transfer requirements and graduation, having an assigned adviser is more than likely to create a streamlined experience for students. There’s also potential for stu-
dents to achieve a level of comfortability with their advisers that they may not been able to have visiting a different one each time. If they’re struggling with adjusting to college or need someone to talk to about a class that isn’t their professor, having
someone to talk to that you can put a face to a name may be the one thing students don’t have to feel stressed about. For the most part, the new advising system sounds beneficial for students, but like a bestie, there could be
potential issues down the line. Some students may have had to “kiss a lot of frogs” before feeling like they had found an adviser that best met their needs. And while that experience may not have been great, at least they had the freedom and relief of knowing they could simply schedule an appointment with a different person next time. According to NE vice president of student affairs Terese Craig, avergage caseloads for advisers will vary depending on the student population of a campus. While this seems completely reasonable, will students be able to receive the quality time they need during their advising appointments? And will advisers be able to manage potentially having around 350 students to assist on a personable level? Additionally, students may not be able to change advisers after already being assigned one. Maybe they can, but nonetheless, it’s a valid concern. And what about wanting guidance about a specific major? If the adviser a student is assigned knows very little about what that student needs and doesn’t, couldn’t that affect what classes they’re suggested to take? While there could be a few bumps in the road, the “drive” should be a lot smoother for students needing general assistance. Who knows? Maybe more students will find themselves in their assigned adviser’s office talking about boy problems after all.
VIEWPOINTS
If you know what you want, why leave it up to chance?
Somaliland’s youth in need of more humanitarian action
person’s life. Excuses need no limit on how to stall progress. This is why the importance of taking control of your life is so valuable. While the prospect of letting chance dictate the future feels less like a burden, it is destroying one’s own autonomy to truly decide what they want. If you did what you actually wanted – within reason – you might find that the fear you experienced before slowly dies out. It takes snuffing it out like a candle flame to know what it’s like to not be afraid of the future. I knew my answer without needing to consult fortune during so many crucial points in my life and I regret waiting for something to tell me I could have it, do it or say it. After it is said and done, all you can think about is what you could have done differently. Truthfully, you may never see the right time if you decide not to look for it. Sufi Poet Jalaluddin Rūmī once penned the phrase, “What you seek is seeking you.” This is the English translation of the original seven-century-old Persian text, but slight tweaks to the language depending on translation really does not change the meaning. It’s the idea that your own wants are not disconnected from you. In some ways, I have to believe the phrase could be true. You have to already know what you want, so chance deciding for you is going to sideline receiving what you want by opting for self-complacency. Waiting for something to happen after the stars align and the heavens open with a chorus of angels makes it all extraordinarily complex and not worth more trouble than needed. If you are going to take anything as a sign, take this column. I cannot predict the future or make decisions for you, but if you are considering choosing for yourself instead of chance, my answer would be, “You may rely on it.”
zure of assets; aerial strikes destroyed 90% of the city of Hargeisa, Somaliland. He was responsible for the massacre of 200,000 members of the Isaaq tribe. There are numerous mass graves. On May 18, 1991, Somaliland regained its sovereignty and has been a peaceful nation in a volatile location. It remains a safe country with political parties, parliament, currency, police, hospitals, schools, and military. Somaliland also has democratic elections, with a voter registration system, so every person’s vote is equally represented. Most of what people hear about Somalia has been about “Black Hawk Down, piracy and Al-Shabab none are present in Somaliland. Today, Somaliland’s recognition goes beyond politics but is a humanitarian right for the people of Somaliland, especially for the population 3.5 million of which at least 70% are younger than 40 years-old, 65% of youth are unemployed, their health, education, and employment are being held hostage by the lack of recognition by the outside world. The MOU and international recognition will give them the chance to make a better life for themselves and their families. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, put out statements denouncing the MOU and his speeches have incited violence in Somalia and in the diaspora against Ethiopia and Somaliland. There was a meeting at a mosque in Minnesota where clergy publicly called for a “jihad” on Ethiopia and Somaliland. The west, mainly the U.S. and U.K., have stated that an African Country would have to be first to recognize Somaliland before they did. This MOU will seal the deal. After 30 years, it’s long overdue for the world to recognize Somaliland’s Independence from Somalia, just like South Sudan from Sudan and Eritrea from Ethiopia and allow them to continue to build their country with the same power and resources as other countries.
HOPE SMITH editor-in-chief
hope.smith393@my.tccd.edu
I shake a Magic 8 Ball at my desk when I want a silly question answered that I already know the answer to. It’s helpful for a quick lunch decision and even more pleasing to see “Without a doubt,” show up on the little blue screen when I get the greenlight for something I had already decided on. In fact, I shook the ball before writing this. “Outlook good,” it prophesized. The funny thing about it is the sheer insignificance of the 8 Ball. It has no motive. It is not wise. The world would not burst into flames if the 8 Ball disintegrated into a dust pile and no one could ever reach for it to know if their crush likes them. The concept of “the right time” is guided under the same principles an 8 Ball does for decision making. It is entirely up to chance. If the 8 Ball was omnipotent then maybe the world could benefit, but it is not. It is just plastic. When we put our trust in things that cannot – do not – understand our lives, we are opting out on opportunity because we let chance dictate. Chance is cheap because the fact of the matter is you know your answer. The fact you are thinking about it means you have an answer. This does not need to apply to cheap fortune teller tricks, but to everywhere else in a
FOUSIA ABDULLAHI campus editor
fousia.abdullahi@my.tccd.edu
We should all be paying more attention to the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden now more than ever. On Jan 1, Somaliland President Musa Bihi Abdi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed signed a Memorandum of Understanding. An MOU is a non-binding agreement between countries stating they will form a partnership on an issue. In this case, Somaliland agrees to a 50year lease of 12 miles of Naval access to the sea to landlocked Ethiopia in exchange for recognition of its Independence, infrastructure development, and business investments. The controversy is that neighboring Somalia is heavily opposed to this partnership because they are against the recognition of Somaliland and have a one-Somalia policy. On Jun. 26, 1960, British Protectorate Somaliland became independent. Only five days later, it united with its neighbor Italian Trust territory and Italian Somaliland to become the Somali Republic. This bilateral agreement to unite never became legal because neither party signed the paperwork. In 1969, Siad Barre took over as a leader in a coup. His regime was a brutal dictatorship, so much so that between 1987 and 1991, he committed genocide of the Isaaq tribe who came from British Somaliland. This was done through summary executions, political imprisonment, torture and sei-
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Meet the Staff EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
CAMPUS EDITORS
MANAGING EDITOR
NORTHEAST Xavier Boatner Fousia Abdullahi
PHOTO/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR
SOUTHEAST Keyla Holmes
ILLUSTRATORS
TRINITY RIVER Olla Mokhtar
Hope Smith Nina Banks
Alex Hoben Tj Favela
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Jerry Swinney Dominick Martinez
PHOTOGRAPHER Rama Ajlouni
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