Page 5 - Phoenix2003

COMMENTARY Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - Page 5 McDaniel alum encounters Honor code system troubles McDaniel student 'Real World' challenges Continued from Page 4 to grant an opportunity for the ac- sible for judging and sentencing the cused to disqualify any members accused. after graduation: McDaniel of the board he/she feels may be This is especially important on biased as a result of some sort of a campus as small and intimate as prior encounter. McDaniel. it- prides Though, as it srands, with the McDaniel inevitably of academic Alum gives the perspective 48 hour notification prior to the self on its standards hearing, the daunting task of achievement. checking board members' impar- Undeniably, academic achieve- tiality would be impossible. ment is defined by the progress and of life after College In the summary of Disciplin- accomplishments of the student- ary Hearing Procedures, the hand- body. The real world is no longer a book states that "every attempt is As is, the disciplinary policy, television program about people to music of {heir own preference got hired. made, however, consistent with specifically the non-academic dis- in their twenties trying to figure that is actually chosen by execu- After almost three months of educational goals, to provide fair- ciplinary procedures. is in insult and out what the hell they are doing tives at labels-the paragon of the Real World kicking me in the ness to an accused student and to potential injury to all students on cookie cutter American mass pro- conscience, gaining twenty pounds with their lives. _. protect himlher from unfair impo- campus. It has become the horrific and duction. and realizing that food and sex sition of serious penalties." Something rnust be done to pre- traumatic saga shared by myself Everything worked in an ISO- were the only enjoyable things I With respect "to provide fair- vent a gross miscarriage of justice and other members of Western approved assembly line, and now I had left in the world, the right job ness to an accused student," the (if one has not already taken place), was trapped. came after me. Maryland College's class of2003. Smiling photos of college college should immediately imple- II is essential that the college The same day, my friend with a Perhaps you've seen that e- friends, snapshots of free time ment a clause that guarantees the adopt certain clauses within their music degree from Cornell Univer- mail forward. It explains that if spent with my boyfriend, and post- accused rights to review and dis- disciplinary procedures in order "to sity called to tell me that she didn't the world's population was repre- qualify any partial members of the protect fa student] from unfair im- cards of four smiling Beetles (ob- get ajob at a bookstore because she sented by 100 people, there would board, who are ultimately respon- position of serious penalties." viously happy with their careers at was "overqualified." be more women than men, more the time) mocked me. Things are still rough out there. blacks than whites and so on. Instead, my mood more fre- And now that I'm happy and se- McDaniel Alum expresses views on the However, one minority figure quently began to match that of cure in my dream job, I still reflect completely shocked me: only one English Major of those people would hold a tragic medieval heroine as she re- on college and the things that I Elaine, sympathetically painted Bachelor's degree. learned and participated in while I Continued/rom Page 4 signs herself to floating down the was fortunate enough to be there. This e- mail's content (which river, with no other way out. The opinions in this expressed I believe was based on an actual Sadder still, I purchased the newspaper were part of one such study) was referenced in a gradu- mini-poster image of Elaine with activity. ation speech delivered to 2003 the last ten dollars in my pocket at Art people, of course). you will make the decision, not your grads in May. I've learned not to simply Why then, do we creative types guide. Naturally, this put things into the semesterly campus poster sale. launch into a political diatribe on Now, I could have had a thou- enjoy swearing? Do I want to complete my paper perspective for me. sand dollars in my pocket with the why the war was wrong. I think Possibly for the same reason thoroughly at the last minute, or do After about 50 job applica- mOSI of the class of 2003, jobless that talented painters enjoy ab- I wish to merely do an adequatejob? tions, I received only a few replies. money Pd made, but f was abso- and/or unhappy, can vouch for that. lutely miserable. I seem to pan out. stract art ... everyone else finds it And by the time you graduate, One seemed promising. I was just lucky to have the job. But I guess all r really learned vulgar, but aren't they totally en- and you have your senior seminar It was a proofreading position, Financially, I was faring better than in college is that trying your best titled to do it, so long as they can paper in your hands, it will be as a and as one whose career goal is to most of my co-graduates, but emo- is truly the best you can do, and that paint well in most styles that came child to you. go into publishing, 1 figured it tionally, I was experiencing many holding your own opinion will before? You'll always think of it as per- would be a good start. of the same feelings .. eventually gain you respect if One that does this might be fect and encouraging to your own I took time out of senior week Despair, the feelings of being you're decent about it, and persis- construed as a slacker. spirit, but mostly because by then, to slay in Philadelphia and secure hours from friends, and having to tent. A writer that produces her or you will have spent the perfect the job before my graduation. start all over again. Going to grad school part time his best material five minutes be- amount of time fostering it. The opportunity was nice. Of all the feelings that irked me, is also going to be enjoyable. How- fore the hour of it being due might Then you will know how four It was hourly, but competitive. one thing bit me square on my cu- ever, it won't be Western Maryland, also be called this, yet before you years of literature have made you a The company's environment was bicle partition. I would read over and life is never the same after col- apply this accusation to the En- better writer. "young and in touch, I' and the of- it as the computer systems fre- lege. glish major, beware! You will know how to cope, fice space was a converted ware- quently crashed. Despair is all too prevalent out True slackerdom is a learned when you need a drink and when to house partitioned into cubicles. She asked me, in the letter, not here in the Real World, and stand- process. abstain, and when the throes of pas- I was happy to receive my to give up my quest for knowledge ing again on that idyllic Hill of The English major enters sion flow out of your life and onto a own. I even had my own desk and and creativity. knowledge hidden away in slackerdom because s/he realizes page. computer, and blank cubicle walls. I thought about it every night, Westminster only provides a con- that slbe can get away with more You'll learn that it's not a faucet I decorated them with my service because since getting a college edu- trasr to the world of the corporate. than passing grades becaus~ they mechanism, but something more fraternity's letters, pictures of col- cation, I had realized that knowl- In the end, though, I suppose read the now-required matenal for atypical, like Jerry Maguire's "mis- lege friends, and even a good luck edge and creativity were such large war can be the answer, in a sense. fun, or in high school. sion statement." Three in the morn- note from a professor. parts of my identity. Once you graduate, you're fighting The English major also makes ing writing is always best and least When I looked around, I ab- But I had to stick with this hor- it. great use of background knowl- sane. sorbed the "young and in touch" rid job (that turned out to involve Having a degree doesn't mean edge and non-sequiturs, thus de- Some people will call this snob- atmosphere of the background little proofreading at all) because anything if you haven't learned its veloping the ever so prized com- bish pride, but it's really just a sense checking corporation. of the economy. true value; it lets you fend for your- municative skills required in both of identity. Cubicle after cubicle of col- My jobless friends most likely self. And you're good. enough, you lege graduate specimens, typing, business and academia. resented me for gelling so de- As I lunch within sight of Inde- A true slacker will employ the deserve it. mesmerized by the music on their pressed over this job. pendence Hall, it isn't easy to real- use of technology at the last headphones. My family was sure that it was ize that I won't be returning to col- minute and will know already All had undecorated cubicles, my own attitude, and not the job lege, but this city is beautiful and where his or her needed section of and communicated only via the itself, but like the professor that there's no place I'd rather be, and office's Outlook e-mail system. Hoover library rests. . wrote the note, 1 knew better than no better way to have gotten here. However, a true English major ;1 was friendly, but no one that. even said hello back. will come to a crossroads. I wanted to quit. The only sup- When there, he or she mayor For once, no one said "I've port I had was reluctant, and from may not meet a Music major will- never heard of McDaniel Col- the boyfriend. ing to sell a soul to the devil for lege," or "so Western Maryland I was ready to quit when I got further talent. College isn't in Western Mary- the call about a job opportunity at And at that very moment. when •Tara DellaFranzia, ~n~?~ey ,11 seemed satisfied. a print-on-demand publishing com- Dante Alighieri mayor may .not McDaniel College Alumni Typing mindless things, listening pany in Olde City, Philadelphia. -Tara DeliaFranzia, appear in the minds of the creanve. I went down the same day and McDaniel College Alumni