This is my last regular column at Student Life. Next week, the very capable Jeff Stepp will be taking over this space.
Over the past year I’ve written about a variety of subjects ranging from Mel Gibson to Teach for America, from secularism to newspaper theft. I stand behind my columns, and hope that a few people have enjoyed them along the way.
That being said, I have put my foot in my mouth on a few occasions. For example, several readers took exception to the following sentence in my last column: “We shouldn’t go easy on the perpetrators even if they are rich, white sorority girls.”
For the record, I was not accusing sororities of being racially exclusive or lacking in diversity. I’ve known too many fine, upstanding Greeks to believe that, and feel bad that the line was interpreted that way. Therefore, I will explain what I was trying to get at when I wrote it.
Sororities are only a subset of the Washington University student body. And let’s face it: for all that body’s diversity, a majority of its members are white kids who aren’t exactly strapped for cash. Like other elite private universities, Washington University is largely a place for the privileged.
There’s not necessarily anything wrong with that. Even the privileged need a place where they can get educated. It only makes me mad when that place is beyond the normal rules of social behavior and criminal justice.
Indeed, that seems to be what “college” is for many people. College seems to be defined by two institutions, the lecture hall and the dorm room. The former is the locus of learning. The latter is a place for personal growth and “experimentation,” which often means unconventional sex and the illegal consumption of alcohol and drugs.
Many students obviously feel entitled to such a college experience. Underage underclassmen complain endlessly when the University prevents their easy access to booze. In the past, some students have thought the South 40 was a good place to smoke pot outside (although they had a rude awakening when WUPD busted them for possession).
Additionally, I think the “anything goes” attitude towards college life is partly to blame for the atrocious incidents that sometimes occur. The “innocent prank” all too frequently becomes a lame excuse for outrageous activities. Hence, a select few have thought it funny to defecate in their RA’s dorm room, steal newspapers and throw dead animals at the girl’s tennis team.
In short, many students expect the “Wash U Bubble” to insulate them from all standards of social decency. They want free range to indulge their every whim without consequences. They don’t just want an undergraduate education; they want a four-year resort where any inhibition can be met with the phrase, “You only be in college once.”
Whatever value there is in such a conception, it’s quite clear that not everyone has the luxury of spending four years in college. Some people just don’t need a college education, many can’t afford it and a few just don’t have the requisite intellectual ability.
For whatever reason, many people in our society don’t get to spend four years “experimenting”-they have to work for a living. They don’t have the luxury of showing up to work drunk, as some Washington University students do on WILD. Society doesn’t look the other way when they use drugs. A black man busted for drug possession in the inner city faces stiff legal penalties. On the rare occasion that a white college student is caught smoking weed, he or she gets a slap on the wrist.
Maybe it’s just my own white guilt, but I don’t like the fact that being in college entitles me to one set of rules, while the “dregs of society” get a different set. I especially dislike the fact that many of us feel entitled to laxer legal regulation, as our actions evidence. I shouldn’t put all the blame on others: I too have at times been guilty of the mindset that undergraduates deserve a special status.
Ultimately, the “anything goes” attitude is not only unjust, but self-defeating; it’s all about avoiding responsibility and delaying maturity. “Experimentation” (as it is commonly understood) retards personal growth instead of fostering it.
Hopefully, students will discover that before they head out into the real world.