There’s a lot that I could say, and even more that I would do. There’ll be lots to come where I am going, and much to remember when I am through. Including…
Architecture students who never got enough rest. Over four years time, I observed countless friends lose sleep-and sanity-while trying to meet professors’ draconian work codes and assignment schedules. I doubt there is much pedagogical benefit to a curriculum that compels students to spend successive nights in Givens Hall. The system’s broke; it’s time administrators fix it.
A school that offers generous merit and need-based awards to attract a capable and diverse student body, but little financial support for research, service, and travel for folks already enrolled. In this respect, Washington University is far behind our “peer institutions,” many of which offer departmental grants to undergraduates for thesis research, scholastic stipends for low and no-pay internships, and alumni-sponsored funds for creative and enriching summer travel.
A roommate who was once my foe, and is now a friend. Hello, Mike.
Business students who don’t know what they’re missing. Some may never know, because for many college is the only time to broaden their horizons, explore disciplines in which they may not work, and grow as a person, not a pocketbook. I majored in finance (at my parents’ “request”), but believe there is only one undergraduate program that makes for a wise investment: a liberal arts education.
Spring break adventures that were neither cautious (home) nor crazy (Cancun), but that were extraordinarily well timed. Too often we “clique” with only a minority of folks at WU. Breaking with a collection of students I had never met was, for lack of a more timely word, liberating. Come next March, you’ll appreciate my terminology.
A student body that some think is diverse because it includes blacks and Jews, but that US News and World Report ranks as relatively homogenous. Why? Because compared to many other top schools, we have few Asians. Food for thought.
Professors I never visited as often as I would have liked. As a freshman, I thought my instructors could be found in offices. They can’t. As a senior, I know professors are “found” in the stories they tell, the advice they give, and the compassion they demonstrate.
Too many folks who are apathetic. Anti-slavery clergyman Henry Ward Beecher once said, “In things pertaining to enthusiasm, no man is sane who does not know how to be insane on proper occasions.” Find a cause, and be passionate in its pursuit. (The opposite or same gender doesn’t count).
A semester abroad in Kenya I wish I could re-live. Go abroad. Go abroad. Go abroad. I don’t care if you’ll miss a semester of future brothers pledging your fraternity. Or several months with friends relaxing in St. Louis. Or even time with a significant other. Experience in another country-the less familiar, the better-will change the way you see yourself and the world. While I’m preaching (to the choir, hopefully), let me add that you should always be honest and considerate. When the two clash, default to the latter. Especially in relationships.
Service workers who don’t get nearly as much compensation, credit-or compliments-as they deserve. We students are confident, demanding, impatient, wealthy (we like to say we’re poor, but everything is relative), and, yes, more often than not inconsiderate. I have a friend who I swear knows the names of all Bon Appetit employees. A good start. But while joking with the folks who make chicken Phillys at Bear’s Den at one in the morning is a nice gesture, it does little to improve workers’ lives. They still get paid not much more than minimum wage. Student labor action project, anyone? We are the union…
The lack of an undergraduate research symposium. I wrote a thesis. So did many others. Our response before and after honors were assigned? That’s it? I’m done. How anti-climactic. I wish there was something else! What would be most wonderful is a public forum for seniors who completed theses (or honors projects) in all disciplines to get together and present research methods and conclusions. If done while mom and dad are in town for graduation, the university might even be able to sucker some parental donations for student research, service and travel (see above).
Having arrived near the opinion’s end, let me be candid about my beginning. The truth is that I knew neither how to commence nor how to clinch my final column as an opinion editor for Student Life. I thought my current introduction would capture my many, many emotions about graduation. And it does, but only at the surface. Try as I might, I couldn’t pack four years of experiences, lessons and memories into a 750-word column. I suppose, as a final rumination, I wouldn’t have college any other way.