Most universities have offices where students can get a lot of useful data on job projections. Everyone agrees that the nation will need more people versed in sciences, but the problem is that poorly prepared and lazy students cannot deal with math and large amounts of reading, so they major in communications, criminal justice and psychology, which are at least as easy as PE used to be.
I was required to have 15 office hours a week. Students normally did not bother to come by, even when I wrote stuff like SEE ME on their wretched tests and copied assignments. A few would trickle in around the time I made out midterm grades. But at the end of the semester, they came in droves with the same question, "what do I have to do to pass your class?" Some of them had only rarely appeared in class. Those with more than 12 unexcused absences could not pass according to the departmental mandate. I would tell them "Read the Syllabus". If they asked three times, I handed them a new copy of the Syllabus and said "Read the Syllabus". It limited the number that came a-begging for "special exceptions". I allowed them to turn in the 14 assignments as many times as they wished, until it was perfect. Strangely, the average score for assignments never reached 80% in any class.
I always had one or two girls who came in and told me the same sad story about how they could not come to class because they were pregnant and too sick in the mornings and stopped attending. A always wanted to ask them, just once, "didn't anyone tell you about where babies come from?" If you want to finish college, why did you get pregnant? If you wanted to get pregnant, what the hell are you doing in college?"
But I never did, It is useless to tell stupid people to stop being stupid.
