Using Words to Connect with Your Audience and Bring Listeners Together

To begin this lesson, read the following speech, which I delivered at the NACADA (National Academic Advising Association) Conference in October of 1993. Keep in mind that the audience consisted of faculty, professional advisors, and college deans and administrators.

Brenda Butterfield

Brigham Young University

NACADA speech

October 12, 1993

Would you mind raising your hands in response to the following questions?

1. How many of you have experienced students graduating with excessive credits (over 250 semester hours)?
2. How many have experienced students taking an average of only 13.1 credits per semester?
3. How many have experienced students taking an average of twelve semesters to graduate?
4. How many have experienced students changing majors three or four times during their university experience?

This is what is happening at BYU. As evidenced by the show of hands today, many of you are dealing with the same challenges. In fact, there appears to be a growing national awareness that length of time in school is not synonymous with high-quality education. Stanford has even considered shortening their baccalaureate program to three years. At BYU we do not anticipate going that far; we merely wish to shorten the distance between what we call a four-year degree and the six years it usually takes to get that degree. Katherine McCarron, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education about changes being made at Oregon and Texas universities, puts it more bluntly: “They want students who take too long to graduate to either hit the books or hit the road.”

Visualize for a moment five o’clock rush hour traffic in a large city such as Detroit. Theoretically, the road has been planned to make travel smooth, comfortable, efficient, and to provide for a safe and timely arrival. But even with this careful planning, the road is congested with cars because there are so many people trying to get to their destinations at the same time. Although there are several lanes to accommodate heavy traffic, the road cannot be widened because of limited space. Stop and go situations still occur due to breakdowns, overcrowding, construction, and accidents.

The university experience is a lot like this road. Students enter the road through the on-ramp of an admissions process. They may change majors or lanes along the way and experience complications or road hazards such as running out of gas, engine burnout, overheating, flat tires, and detours due to construction. Faculty and academic advisors make travel go as smoothly as possible by paving the way, mapping out destination plans, broadcasting traffic reports, and providing flashing red lights to encourage caution and ensure eventual safe arrival. But students are also personally responsible for their journey. Like car owners who must be aware of insurance, licensing, inspections, maintenance, and indicator lights on the dashboard, students must register for the proper classes, financially prepare for tuition and textbook costs, schedule study time, and meet academic expectations.

Right now, many universities are experiencing rush hour traffic. Congestion caused by seniors who don’t graduate prevents freshmen from gaining admission. At BYU, an effort is being made to make the roadway available to all by increasing speed limits, filling in potholes, providing more maps and road signs along the way, requiring checkpoints, providing towing services for vehicles that have broken down, and encouraging students to keep their eyes on the road and to focus on their final destination. All of these methods will hopefully guarantee a safe and timely arrival at graduation.

Now that I have given you background on the traffic flow challenge facing BYU, I’d like to go into more detail regarding the causes of our problems and steps towards solving them.