2008 Woodie Awards
Sans serif soliloquies:
Untapped power of college system: shenanigans
Sean McBeath
Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: Opinion
In the rigmarole that is a Rice education, it's easy to lose focus. We spend so much time occupying the floors of Fondren Library and pounding cappuccino at Coffeehouse that schoolwork overshadows the rest of our lives. And, with what little remains, we fail to appreciate the one thing that should save us from the mundane routine into which each semester eventually falls: The college system.
While many universities have their own local rivalries, Rice finds itself in a rather unique position. With our proclaimed academic rivals residing thousands of miles to the northeast and our academic equals spread across the south, we find ourselves without any unifying force to pull us together as a student body.
And so, lacking the solidarity provided by an antagonist, it seems obvious that we should do what people always do in this situation: We need to go to war. And before you start taking offense, this is just a metaphor. Mostly.
We've already got the nine colleges. (Eight, depending on how old-fashioned you want to be.) But the college system fails to live up to its potential - which, in my opinion, is beyond the scope of what we imagine now. Today, the system is a convenient way to break down a student body of 2,800 into manageable chunks; it creates intimacy amidst a relatively large number of people. What it should do is create more intimacy among the considerably smaller number of people living at each college.
Sure, we chant and yell and cheer during Orientation Week and Willy Week. We jokingly banter and mock our friends. We all hate Lovett and acknowledge that Martel isn't really a college, that Brown is shit and Hanszen is just another high school.
But beyond that, coming together as a college is almost exclusively a result of or an excuse for drinking. The three most popular events for most colleges? I would bet they are Beer-Bike, College Night and Pub Night, in some order. I am not suggesting that the drinking stop; but the college life should not stop there, either.
While many universities have their own local rivalries, Rice finds itself in a rather unique position. With our proclaimed academic rivals residing thousands of miles to the northeast and our academic equals spread across the south, we find ourselves without any unifying force to pull us together as a student body.
And so, lacking the solidarity provided by an antagonist, it seems obvious that we should do what people always do in this situation: We need to go to war. And before you start taking offense, this is just a metaphor. Mostly.
We've already got the nine colleges. (Eight, depending on how old-fashioned you want to be.) But the college system fails to live up to its potential - which, in my opinion, is beyond the scope of what we imagine now. Today, the system is a convenient way to break down a student body of 2,800 into manageable chunks; it creates intimacy amidst a relatively large number of people. What it should do is create more intimacy among the considerably smaller number of people living at each college.
Sure, we chant and yell and cheer during Orientation Week and Willy Week. We jokingly banter and mock our friends. We all hate Lovett and acknowledge that Martel isn't really a college, that Brown is shit and Hanszen is just another high school.
But beyond that, coming together as a college is almost exclusively a result of or an excuse for drinking. The three most popular events for most colleges? I would bet they are Beer-Bike, College Night and Pub Night, in some order. I am not suggesting that the drinking stop; but the college life should not stop there, either.
Comments from unregistered users are subject to editor approval. Log in or register now to post a comment immediately.
Be the first to comment on this story