Letter to the editor: A response to ‘The real college rankings’
Dear Editor,
I was very disappointed this past Monday when I read “The Real College Rankings” article in the most recent issue of StudLife. It should be an embarrassment to the publication, and I felt personally embarrassed for the school at large as a member of the Wash. U. community. To an outsider (e.g. a visiting high school senior), the article made the school seem not only rankings-obsessed, but also petty and insecure, and said far more about Wash. U. than it did about the schools it was “ranking.”
I am a proud member of the Wash. U. community. I chose Wash. U., due in major part to the community that I observed while I was visiting and the testaments of students who went here. I have been surprised only by how well the school lived up to its reputation during the little over a year that I have been here. The article was a better example of the Wash. U. community’s insecurity than it was of its pride. If we are so concerned with the US News and World Report’s rankings, we should work to improve our own school rather than superficially tear down others.
While the article was intended to be ironic, its jokes were less witty than mean and its tone more arrogant than proud. I believe the Wash. U. community is better than the article portrays us. I encourage Student Life to show more discretion in its future articles and consider the portrait it paints of our community.
Gabriel Hassler
PS to my comment below: In my comment on Student Life’s rather lame endorsement of the school, Spring 2008 (now erased from view, like all the other comments through 2008), I exhorted all the rabble rousers and trouble makers to come here and shake things up a bit, in a constructive way of course, because we need you (close paraphrase). I am proud to have met and become friends with some who read this and came here because of, or in spite of, my exhortation. Seriously, the school’s identity crisis and huge endowment are both assets for any bright student who really wants to make a difference, and the Admissions Committee does an excellent job of recruiting a diverse, idealistic, and lively class every year. We have even worked out the etiquette of direct action and civil disobedience, and other forms of political theater (e.g. the 2005 Living Wage Sit-In in the Admissions Office, the 2008 Phyllis Schlafly honorary degree protest, and the 2010 Energy Futures Symposium protest, though perhaps the school’s overreaction to the Young Americans for Liberty’s 2009 Mock Gulag is a blemish on our record).
If you regret your decision to come here and just want to complain, perhaps you should transfer. If you want to change things, please stay.
I agree. Wash U needs to get over its identity crisis and be more secure with itself. Despite many serious problems, it is a great school with even greater potential, a “fixer-upper” as I once called it in a comment on Student Life’s rather tepid endorsement of the school (Spring 08). One person, or a small group, really can make a difference here, because the Administration really does listen. If anything, they have a tendency to overreact to perceived problems by spending money. We should count our blessings.
Lecturer Dr. Jerome Bauer
Initiative for Lecturer’s Policy Reform and Fairer Deals for Adjuncts