5. The financial-planning office at Fern Valley University concludes that it is
necessary to initiate a fund-raising campaign among alumni that will enable the
university to expand the range of subjects it offers and increase the size of its library
facilities. It: argument is based on a five-year decline in enrollments and admission
applications together with the claim that students cite poor teaching and inadequate
library resources as their chief sources of dissatisfaction with Fern Valley. The
conclusion of the financial-planning office is not strongly supported by the reasons
given.
To begin with, this argument depends on the assumption that providing a greater
range of subjects and a larger library will alleviate the students' chief sources of
dissatisfaction. However, the students have not complained about inadequate course
offerings or about the size of the library; their complaint is that the existing courses are
poorly taught and that library resources are inadequate. Offering more kinds of classes
does not improve teaching quality, and increasing a library's size does nothing to
enhance its holdings, or resources. Accordingly, the recommendation does not bear
directly on the problem as stated.
Secondly, the proposal unfairly assumes that the recent enrollment and application
decline was caused by poor teaching and inadequate library resources. It is equally
possible that all colleges, regardless of teaching quality and library resources, have
experienced similar declines. These declines may have been due to unrelated factors,
such as unfavorable economic conditions, or an increase in high-paying computer jobs
not requiring a college education.
Thirdly, the author provides no support for the claim that students are dissatisfied
with the teaching and library resources at Fern Valley. It is possible that the claim is
based on hearsay or on scant anecdotal evidence. Without more information about the
basis of the claim, we cannot be sure that the financial-planning office is addressing the
real problems.
In conclusion, the advice of the financial planning office is not well supported. To
strengthen the argument, the planning office must provide evidence that students are
dissatisfied with the range of subjects and with the library's size, and that this
dissatisfaction is the cause of the recent decline in enrollment and the number of
admission applications. To better assess the argument as it stands, we would need to
know whether the students' attitudes were measured in a reliable, scientific manner.
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