The Student Association seems to have latched on to a big student concern that involves bad communication, but not in the way it might seem at first glance.

The SA Academic Affairs Committee has received about 75 complaints from students in a Statistics 208 class about instructor Sadhana Tiwari. The main complaint is that they cannot understand Tiwari’s lectures because of her thick accent.

This does sound like a serious problem. After all, communication is a pretty big key to the learning process. How can you understand the material being taught if you cannot even understand the language used to describe it and express it?

Tiwari understands the problem, though. She says she knows her accent is sometimes hard to understand, but it cannot be gotten rid of in the blink of an eye.

For this reason, as most instructors, she has made herself available to students at times while class is not in session so that they can see her about any problems they have or anything which they need more explanation on.

But instructors cannot help students straighten out problems if the students do not take advantage of this time. Communication, like the learning process itself, is a two-way street.

Problems like disorganization or lack of planning, however, might be best handled through SA channels, and the group should follow through to the letter on them.