ByStudents

The ol’ Rake Metaphor in full swing:

I have described the Middlebury student body as a rake. At one end you have the handle, which is the very distinct kind of frat-boy culture. Mostly varsity athletes from a few big time sports and their groupies, they are pretty separate from everyone. They don’t really mix with other groups, and they can be pretty closed minded towards people who don’t fit their mold for whatever reason. I’d say they are like 20-25% of the campus. At the other end of the rake you have other groups which have their own core members, but all kind of blend together as you get closer to the shaft of the rake. The international students have a distinct group, the environmentalists, the theater majors, the hipsters, the very studious. Most of the campus kind of move between these groups. Or they don’t really fit into any of these categories, they are just normal. They are the shaft of the rake. I regret using the rake metaphor in the first place. Racial diversity at Middlebury from within the US is low. We have a lot more South American students than latinos. And a fair number of africans, but not a lot of african americans. It’s a liberal school. Period. It’s not hard to be a quiet conservative, but homophobia, racism, war hawking or denying global warming will be met with hostility.

Bringing History to life edition.

Via Barnard:

The most amazing Seminar is one called Reacting to the Past. It’s run as a series of games (three) over the course of the semester, in which students act out periods in history. For example, the first game took place in Athens in 403 BCE. We were all members of the Athenian assembly. As Athens had just suffered a crushing defeat to Sparta, it was our job to make laws and determine how bring Athens back to glory. We each had roles and positions and we spent our classes arguing about who should be allowed to vote, about whether we should send military expeditions off to raise money, about what to do concerning education. It was amazing how seriously everyone took their roles. The game is fascinating because you really get to experience periods and time and interact with texts (like Plato’s Republic) as if they’re real things, not just classic books that some professor forces you to read.

It’s that time of year again when publications like Newsweek come out with their “subjective and temporary” college rankings.

There’s the expected “Hottest Ivy,” which went to Cornell this year (Andy Bernard from NBC’s The Office must be absolutely ecstatic) and the not so expected “Hottest in the War on Terror,” which went to New Mexico Tech for its new government funded research centers for fighting the War on Terror.

Thanks for pointing out theses temporarily hot schools Newsweek, but I wish there was a way college students from across the country could let everyone know why their school deserves the “Hot” title. Hmm…

Happy student edition.

Via Haverford:

We share classes with Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, and Penn; so it’s a busy little campus. I would still love it even if it was self-contained: I love passing by people I know and giving them a big grin! … Our dining services are amazing – everyone complains about college food, but we really have the best quality imaginable. And we definitely have the friendliest staff. They are truly our friends. Everyone on campus is friends with everyone else. … Of course I know my professors by name! You don’t?

Via Kenyon:

I should thank God every day I get to go to Kenyon

Geography matters, kind of.

Worst Thing: The hills. Not really but they are a pain when you have to go across campus.

-Sarah, Texas St.

1. How much did you have to nag Zack to finish filling out college applications?

Boy, talk about nagging - I nagged Zack every night for a couple of months until 3-4 applications went out.

2. Honestly: who filled out Zack?s college application, you or him?

It was him, really (but with me on his side).

3. How did you feel when you dropped Zack off at college?

I had very mixed feelings. I was happy to see him at the school he really wanted to be at, but deep inside, I was anxious about how he would manage on his own. I was sad, too, knowing that I would not get to see him every day.

4. What was the oddest phone call you received from Zack while he was at college?

There was one call only, thank God. A guy called my office, introduced himself and told me that he found Zack’s wallet in a cab. The reason he called me was my business card was in the wallet. Nice guy.

5. Did you make any major changes to Zack?s room after he left for college?

No, i did not make any major changes. Just rearranged it a bit to make it more of a man’s room rather than a high school kid’s.

6. What were the best and worst parts of having a child in college?

The best part was getting to visit him on weekends and going out as a family for lunch or dinner. The worst was not knowing where he was. He never called back!

This story from the Atlanta Journal Constitution deals in a straightforward and honest way with the topic of diversity in the dorms. Apparently Catherine Donnelly, the woman assigned to be Michelle Obama’s roommate at Princeton, was from Georgia and, um, “wasn’t used to” living with black people.

[Donnelly’s mother Alice] Brown, 71, explains that she was raised to think that way. She recalls hearing her grandfather, a sheriff in the North Carolina mountains, brag about running black visitors out of the county before nightfall. And Brown’s parents held on to the n-word like a family heirloom.

However much you may disapprove of their attitudes, you have to admire how forthright Donnelly and Brown are in this article. At this point, most people in America want to have marched with MLK Jr.; who wants to have cheered for the pressure hoses and the dogs? Brown, though, doesn’t blink at the truth. She admits that she “stormed down to the campus housing office and demanded Donnelly be moved to another room.”

There wasn’t another open room, and Donnelly came around so fast she probably had whiplash. Donnelly says she found Obama “smart … charming, interesting and funny.” But the two traveled in different circles. Second semester, a space opened up elsewhere, and Donnelly moved out.

Today, Donnelly and Brown are more open-minded than they were, although Brown, now in her 70s, retains more of the suspicion and hostility she grew up with (”Where I draw the line is interracial marriage,” Brown says without embarrassment). And both are drawn to Barack Obama as a candidate, despite their affiliations with the GOP:

[Brown is] a sucker for Harvard grads, especially eloquent ones. “He thinks well,” Brown said recently, though she and Donnelly are still undecided voters. “He seems to be a thoughtful person. He considers everything.”

Like a Sesame Street episode, this story ends with a lesson learned: “We thought this is so ironic,” Brown says. “[Obama] could be the first lady, and here we wanted to get my child out of her influence.” Indeed.

via the University of Maryland:

Because of the size, the student body is totally balkanized. Once I found my group of intellectuals, writers, artists, feminists, and queers, I delightedly self-segregated as well. It’s a survival mechanism and a recipe for happiness in the impersonal city that is the UMD College Park campus.

and via Cornell:

What Are Some Stereotypes?
That the Cornell campus is full of bridges that Cornell students all use to kill themselves.

Are These Stereotypes Accurate?
Sort of. There are bridges. And once in a while, someone will jump off of one.

In general, there is a guarantee of 1-2 suicides each school year. One year I remember thinking, “you know, it’s spring, and no one’s killed themselves.” There were two suicides in the next two weeks.

But, the official party line is that Cornell is actually slightly BELOW the national average for college student suicide. I have never personally investigated the statistics.

Needless to say, if you kill yourself, you have bigger problems than “the bars don’t stay open late enough,” so I tend not to blame the suicides on the school. As for blaming suicides on the weather: if you’re that cold, then buy a jacket, for God’s sake. It’s much less messy and you don’t have to write a note first.

1. How much did you have to nag Max to finish filling out college applications?

I did not have to nag Max at all. He probably had to nag me!

2. Honestly: who filled out Max’s college application, you or him?

I would say I did most of them because we typed them out on a typewriter (when he was applying not that many applications were online).

3. How did you feel when you dropped Max off at college?

Overwhelmed, excited, proud - how I usually feel about my children!

4. What was the oddest phone call you received from Max while he was at college?

All of his phone calls are odd!

5. Did you make any major changes to Max’s room after he left for college?

No, not at all - I still haven’t. In fact, I fantasize that everyone still lives at home.

6. What were the best and worst parts of having a child in college?

The best part was hearing about and sharing in his college experience; the worst part was how much it cost us. But really, it was money well spent.

1. How much did you have to nag Jess to finish filling out college applications?

My wife took the lead in the application process. But my recollection from our discussions is that Jess was very dedicated to the process and did not need nagging.

2. Honestly: who filled Jess’s college application, you or her?

As with #1, I did not fill out Jess’s application. My wife did work closely with her during the entire process.

3. How did you feel when you dropped Jess off at college?

It was a mixture of pride and happiness with a touch of melancholy. Of course both my wife and I were so proud that Jess had achieved this goal, and I was happy for her in view of the adventure that she was setting out on. But it was impossible to completely avoid a light touch of sadness at the closing of a wonderful life chapter as she began to make the transition from child to adult. Many images went through my mind of her as a baby and a toddler - great memories. But mainly there was a sense of satisfaction that, as I put it to her Mom that day, she was well launched.

4. Did you make any major changes Jess’s room after she left for college?

There were no changes to her room other than pulling the computer out.

5. What were the best and worst parts of having a child in college?

The best part was knowing that she was enjoying herself and that she had so many resources at her disposal. It was hearing about what she was doing and knowing that she was forming friendships that would hopefully last a lifetime. The worst part was no longer having her in the house and seeing her empty chair at dinner. But this was entirely manageable in the context of knowing that she was doing so well in her new environment.