Campus Reaction: Rice students must avoid apathy (Batoul Abuharb)
Rice students take on a thousand extracurricular activities and struggle to juggle school, friends, family, activities and sleep. Our motivation to be the best academically and the most well-rounded candidates for our future careers has created a culture of apathy. I transferred to Rice after completing my associate's degree in science from Houston Community College and immediately became aware of the huge difference in the student body. One of the biggest things that stood out to me was how the intensive focus on academics at Rice often prohibited students from engaging in other activities. Students hesitated to give an opinion or to advocate for something controversial, sticking to mainstream values that limit conflict and confrontation. Last spring, I went to office hours for one of my favorite professors at Rice and I asked her if she had also noticed this behavior to make sure I wasn't just over-analyzing. Her answer surprised me. She said that she had a hard time even getting students to participate in class when they needed to share an opinion about an issue, even if it wasn't that controversial.
Do we not have enough time to care about anything besides building a perfect resume and maintaining a perfect grade point average? What happened to putting ourselves out there and demonstrating our advocacy for things we believe in? Are we so consumed with our studies that we don't have time to care about anything else? Many of us have either heard or said that Rice students are apathetic; how about we stop complaining and start doing? It is perfectly normal to have differing opinions and shake things up every now and then. Let's not become normal; shenanigans are welcome at this school.
Batoul Abuharb is a Martel College junior.
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