This previous semester I was enrolled in a political philosophy course, more aptly known as political theory: the different schools of thought on how and why government should be. Our first section was on, of course, Aristotle. He had an interesting way to describe humans, zoon politikon. Any basic understanding of language roots can lead someone to deduce this is translated somewhere around "political animal". Indeed, humans maintain political institutions, not only in government, but at home and in community. Naturally, Aristotle argued, we are creatures that seek political ends. "Politics" in this sense, and in our modern sense if one is at their most cynical hour of the day, is similar to "business". They are both a hierarchical pattern to maintain ends at the use (or expense) of means. It seemed apt to me, at hearing of this primal idea, that it seemed rather valid. What seemed even more apt is that we should try and prevent the nature of politics and business from permeating all facets of our lives. There is one key aspect I hold near the most important in its separation from our political nature.
It's my university education. In actuality, it's education as a whole, but this remains my focus currently.
At my current university, it has become what I can only imagine is lucrative to press more money out of students. I have a specific situation that has been pressing me into anger all week. Whenever I ended last year, I signed a Housing Lease Based Agreement for an apartment on campus, a contract that must be filled out (with a $105 fee for ... paper? I don't know) and turned in to qualify for a housing registration section. My roommates and I patiently waited for our time to come up. These time slots opened based on class standing and class hours received. Once we got in, all the academic-year leases were long gone, so only full leases (fall semester, spring semester, and summer) were left. The academic year does not include the summer, and leaves off the little cost of somewhere around $1,200. So, we gritted our teeth, hoping there would be an exit strategy later. The apartments are broken up into four buildings. Buildings one and three operate on academic lease, while two and four house the suckers who were left behind. I'm one of those suckers. There are two options to get out of your lease and save the money. Sub-lent your room for the Summer and someone else pays it. Pay $250 and terminate your contract (if, of course, you are married, studying abroad, or leaving the school, no exceptions). Few here seek rooms for the summer at the apartments I live in. Many go to the two upper tier complexes that only have year leases, hence why they go there if they want a summer session to begin with. Many more live off campus. So one can see how few, if any, people would want to rent apartments mainly intended for Sophomores over the summer; definitely not enough to warrant two buildings that house half its total 662 beds.
Even my resident adviser told me it's extremely difficult to do.
This summer I will be paying for a room I won't be using, as I'll be at home for the summer. Everyone wants an academic year lease, yet the offer plenty of leased based agreements not asked for. They trap some students into paying for it, with no way out. The worst part of it all is that they integrate living in these certain apartments as "integral to the sophomore experience." They market it to us, have ways to extrapolate more money, and leave us with more costs.
The sad part is, this is one example of the many. Hiring students to call alumni, many not wealthy, to ask for donations going down a list while they simultaneously raise our tuition to "meet demands." They reach their goal of raising $60million, yet still raise our tuition. They merge two departments entirely unrelated, physics and geology, terminate professors or relegate them to associate and part time, yet build two whole new rings to the student recreation center. They reduce scholarship funding yet build a brand new building, complete with all the highest quality amenities, for a major that this university doesn't even excel at.
It is all about what sells. Brilliant professors and content don't sell like cool new buildings and huge recreation centers do. This is what businesses do, and higher education has adopted it wholesale.
I am aware that not all schools operate to the full extent of a corporation, but all do to some capacity. One school paid upwards of a million dollars to buy a piece of some random Talmudic writing to put in a museum, yet make students pay change for laundry machines in the dorms. I still believe in college, there are good people here and at all institutions. There are good policies: scholarships are still given, student services managed, police well funded and knowledgeable, and libraries stocked (if closed early ...).
This is probably something you've heard before, something you've experienced. I am not even sure of a single solution, as such fixings in singularity rarely exist. It is simply depressing to think that students, and their funds, are commodities used to attract the next batch of unwilling investors.
Then there is the illustrious book store. I just didn't handle it, for fear of imploding into myself.
In thinking of the title, I ran across this:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/
Earlier this year, I coined the term "perpetual sneak preview culture" to describe the kind of marketing overload that has started to take hold at some film websites. Every day there's a new teaser, or behind the scenes featurette, or five exclusive new stills. Each one comes with its own prediction-laden blog post; each builds up bigger expectations that are harder to match. We start to confuse good marketing with good moviemaking -- or worse, we assume bad marketing equals bad moviemaking. We form our opinions, then watch the movie as a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. "John Carter" looks bad, hence "John Carter" is bad (or, for a 2013 example, how about "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters?") The "Zero Dark Thirty" ads that run during NFL football sell it as a piece of macho, patriotic action, hence "Zero Dark Thirty" is a piece of macho, patriotic action.
A Look Back at the Last Decade of the Sundance Film Festival
2007 Sundance Film Festival: Once
World Cinema Audience Award
“Great music aside, what makes this film special is how little effort it seems to exert. If it’s possible to be blindsided by simplicity—a light touch, Once does it.” –Senior Programmer John Nein
Revisit more films from the past decade: http://bit.ly/UkCmYB
Photo by Fred Hayes
"At its best our age is an age of searchers and discoverers, and at its worst, an age that has domesticated despair and learned to live with it happily."
gummygunk
snowghoul
titsay
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
izzy806
kianamaiart
