Page 56 - Phoenix1998-99

Thursday, November 5, 1998 - Page 8 COMMENTARY Learning Experience at Quirks: Mandatory WMC Madness Megan Martin takes a look at ent kinds of people. The campus-wide sense what we can learn/rom last week's of outrage, the candlelight vigil, and the Anne Butler disagrees with the Joe frowned, "Isn't that a good thing events. quick action taken by the school all demon- proposed mandatory meetings. though? I mean to bring us all to- strate a commitment to tolerance. gether?" The events of the past week, both at Despite the controversy surrounding In the Fall of the year 2000, the squir- April sighed again, "Behind the Goucher and WMC, have really made me some of the solutions brought up at the vigil rels of Western Maryland College finally meetings were the best of intentions I stop and think. I mean really think about and the results of such a fast investigation, were able to take over the campus as all admit, but the concept, the implementa- the way the world is right now. they are, at least, still signs that intolerance of the students were attending a manda- tion was terrible. There were so many I honestly do not understand how people is not acceptable. tory weekly meeting designed to bring potential problems with it. What time of 1998 can be prejudiced to the extent we At the very least, this incident may serve them together as a "community." Un- would they have the meetings? At night have seen recently, but maybe that is just some purpose. It has gotten us talking about fortunately, since all of the students and when clubs/classes/teams and other because of the way I was raised. I was al- racial intolerance. Without talking about it, campus "community" were at the meet- things generally meet? Or when stu- ways taught to respect people for who they we cannot find a way to overcome intoler- ing, no one was on hand to defend the dents are doing homework or studying? are, not because of their skin color, religion, ance here or in the "real world." campus against the squirrel's swift and What if a student were sick? How would gender, etc. And, at least we're not talking about the brutal coup. Now, in the early days of they enforce the attendance require- I came to WMC because its atmosphere Clinton scandal anymore. the 200 I fatl semester. the students and ment?" seemed to reinforce the way I was taught. 'Seriously, however, maybe the person faculty are brought together as a com- "Couldn't they hold it on the week- Also, part of my personal ideal for a college who wrote the racist messages, whether he munity of "workers" who are "striving ends?" Joe asked. is that the people there, while maybe not fully has been caught or not, will learn that there for the future glory of rodent-kind." April shook her head. "That's even getting along, at least tolerate and respect is no room in our society for messages of April and Joe were two such work- worse. That's when most students work each other. WMC, while not especially di- hate. We will learn, too, that hate and hate- ers. Currently, the two students were on big assignments such as papers, or go verse in ethnicity, seemed to fit this part of mongers are still out there, and we have a part of a group building a huge statue to to the library. And what about students my definition of the college for me. long way to go to reach complete harmony commemorate the squirrels' leader, that worked on/off campus on the week- Even after last week's events, I still think and respect. Nutkin I. The squirrel overlords had ends and weekdays? Were they to he this school is fairly tolerant towards differ- nicely decided that each human worker penalized for their employment? And should have an eight-hour rest period. what if students wished to go home that The two students had just finished their weekend? Would they be required to to the pens just Bee-ing Patient with Your work and went rest back period. in order stay on campus they to go to the meet- to begin their have to go through Or would ing? Exhausted, Joe flopped down on a a mile of paperwork just to get permis- Dorm Mates bunk. "Oh, man! I don't know to come I sion to miss it?" attention now. "What why 25,000 She had Joe's keep spending bucks just here every year and be a slave! How did did they finally do?" this all start anyway?" "They combined it with a worship Lisa Dale- Van Auken takes an There are the people who can 't under- annoying dorm situation and stand the concept of talking at only a few turns into a positive one. decimals, and there are ones who never say "They took away our freedom of choice when they a word at all. "A filing cabinet of human lives,/ where There's the girl who sings 2417, and implemented that meeting, and it lost much of the people swarm like bees in tunneled hives," there's the midnight wanderer who appears brightness of its purpose because of that." writes poet Gerald Raffery of his dorm life to have no room to sleep in. at college. It is not hard to think of our cin- There are the decathlon experts who der block hallways as tunnels in a hive, and live on the floor above you and race up comparing our dorm mates to beesisn 't al- and down that halls every night, making April sat on the bunk opposite the boy service on Sunday morning, which ways too far from the hive either. you think: the building is collapsing. and yawned. "Huh? You mean you caused many non-Christian students to We can almost always hear them, buzz- There are dancers, runners, writers, don't know the story?" Having been become upset because they didn't wish ing in the next room or clopping down the cheerleaders, student council members, here throughout the squirrel revolution, to, well, 'be forced to attend church.' hall in those annoyingly loud shoes. They and many other kinds of students. she thought it almost inconceivable that They took away our freedom of choice go flying out the door to class early in the If you take the time to ask anyone of someone hadn't heard the tale. when they implemented that meeting, morning in a frenzy, and they return late at these people about themselves, you just Joe shook his head. "I'm only a and it lost much of the brightness of its night, slamming doors and sending that ob- might discover that there is a part of who sophomore, remember?" purpose because of that. Many students noxious laugh slapping on your ears-when they are in you. Sure, it's awkward to meet April nodded, "Yeah, I remember left as well, because they were so dis- you already have a headache. And you new people, especially people who have now. You're one or those 'wise fools.' gusted at the whole proceeding. When know that they are just waiting for you to the potential to drive you crazy, but all of Well, listenvand I will tell you the 'Tale they finally did get everyone to attend be asleep to play that horrible music. us have something inside of us that needs of the Mandatory Meeting.'" all the meetings, the squirrels made their One morning, I woke up laughing. to be shared, and all of us need to meet "It had all started in 1998 when there move, and since our defenses were Faint, yet definite strains of the latest dance different kinds of people if we are to re- had been some unfortunate racist inci- down, we were overwhelmed." mix of "Stayin Alive" came wafting to my ceive the full education we came to col- dents in Rouzer Hall.. .. " Joe hesitated and then asked, "What ears from somewhere in the building. While lege for. Most of us didn't come to col- Puzzled by the unfamiliar name, Joe else could they have done?" such perky music at an early hour did not lege to learn how to live like hermits. asked, "Er, where's that, in Westminster April considered, "Well there was a make my roommate and I want to leap out So maybe the people on your floor do or something?" proposal to make it mandatory for all of our beds and dance, it did motivate us to have their annoying lime quirks. Most April sighed. Underclassmen these freshmen to take. a class celebrating di- get out of the room as soon as possible. likely, you do too. The point is all of the days .... No respect for their heritage. "It versity. That would have been better Being pretty much nocturnal, neither inconveniences that dorm life incorporates used to be the boys-only dorm. The than mandatory weekly meetings. Or one of us could understand listening to such should not be always regarded as a prob- overlords use it as the dump now." Joe even better: have the meetings two or in-your-face music at such an early hour. lem, but as an experience in learning to nodded in understanding, and April con- three times a year, making it a celebra- We laughed about it for a while. It was respect and tolerate different kinds of tinued, "Now after the incidents in Rou- tion or a campus tradition. That would amusing the first time to hear music usu- people. zer, the school scheduled a candlelight be better than continually pounding it ally played at night blasting during the wee lfyou consider the people in your build- vigil to celebrate tolerance and diver- into the students heads every week so morning hours, but somehow, it lost some ing like bees, as Raffery does, don't swat sity." Her eyes gained a faraway look. often that they step listening." of its magic the second time, and the at them or spray them with Raid. Other "It was a beautiful sight, lots of people April yawned. "We'd better get to third ... and the fourth ... than making them angry, you'll be branded were there, including the media, and all sleep. We have to finish Lord Nutkin's But, hey, we all have our little secrets a psycho for the rest of the year. Instead, of them had candles, and you could al- tail tomorrow." when it come to music. Right? Listen care- try to get to know them. They're in the most think the school would heal. Un- Joe nodded. "I wish they hadn't fully next time you're walking down the same sticky situation as you are. fortunately, one of the proposals to help started those mandatory meetings. We hall, and you'll hear all the artists that ev- If you do this, you just might find it to make us more "united as a whole" was could be studying like normal college eryone is afraid to admit they love, like, be as the poet continues: "Back to his own the concept of mandatory school-wide students instead of toiling under the Barry Manalow, Harry Connick, Jr., or cell in the towered comb,l Identical and meetings." 'squirracracy". Stupid meetings." Cher. It's all there, because a lot of differ- cramped we call it home." ent kinds of people live in our dorms.