Almost half the undergraduate students in the U.S. show no significant learning gains in a recent study conducted at New York University. The study blames this on colleges that make other things, such as athletics, the priority over academics.

The study showed that 45 percent of students who have had two years of college show no significant improvements in learning. Out of the same students, 36 percent showed little change in learning after four years of college.

Also according to the report, many instructors are tied up in their own research and work compared to preparing for their classes.

Pam Kingsbury, an English instructor at UNA, thinks that colleges are still ultimately doing their jobs. “In the broad sense UNA’s purpose has been teaching,” she said.

Kingsbury said that the goal of a university is to give students a well-rounded education compared to a vocational education.

Kingsbury admitted that the first two years is a time for professors to refresh students’ minds. She said that the whole goal of the basic courses of college is to remind, refresh and reintroduce students to information in a new way.

“We fill in the gaps in education in the first two years of college,” Kingsbury said. “We don’t question why athletes or musicians practice the same moves over and over. Most of us unconsciously use everything we have absorbed on a daily basis, we’re just no longer aware of the details because they’ve become a part of us.”

UNA sophomore Denise Crawford feels short changed from her college experience. She feels as though the faculty could challenge students more.

“I feel that the first few years are basic courses to get you prepared for what you need to know,” Crawford said. “To me, it’s a repeat of high school courses.”

UNA sophomore Abigail McBride said that her first two years of college have been slightly less that what she expected.

“I feel like only a small amount of my classes have challenged me at all,” McBride said. “I feel like teachers do not go more in depth.”

McBride said her freshman year felt as though she was learning the same things that she had already learned in previous years.

“Teachers should make class more interactive,” McBride said.

“UNA does put academics first; you never hear about other things in class,” Crawford said. “When you get to college you think you are going to learn new things, but in most classes you feel like you have already heard it before.”