cannot help

The semester has just past. With so many things happened in the past months, it is hard to say whether that was a good or a bad semester.

It was good to meet some good students who worked harder than the average. Yet, those good students were still not good enough to compete in the international arena. Hopefully, they will strengthen during their Master's programs.

The department is quite in trouble--No significant achievements in either research or teaching activities. It was really hard to ask anyone, either faculty members or students, to pursue challenging goals while the atmosphere is not in the right mood. They live day by day, not expecting, if not rejecting, changes to their lives.

One sign is particularly troublesome. Students sought to get high grades by choosing easy courses, and some faculty members actually responded accordingly. It might be true that some students performed really well in the classes and deserved extra-ordinarily high grades, but isn't it also true that a high percentage of extra-ordinarily high grades indicates problems in the course design? The faculty members should work harder to re-design their courses to motivate students to meet higher standards, and neither faculty members nor the students should satisfy themselves with the current low standards. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The department as a whole looks being trapped in a deep illusive optimum.