Newspapers / North Carolina School of … / Feb. 1, 2003, edition 1 / Page 5
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ncssm I the stentoria february 2003 ■ 5 Hunt Split Davis Bowen and Austin Luton R ecently it has come to our attention that it is the intention of the administration to split up Hunt into East and West in an attempt to foster better learn ing by creating smaller com munities. The administration cites several studies that supposed ly claim that smaller commu nities result in the individuals being more committed to the community. One of their main concerns with making Hunt residents more dedicated to the community was to stop vandalism. In the past, Hunt has been responsible for more tomfool ery than any of the other dorms... combined. It would seem that the administration believed that if Hunt residents were to have a stronger sense of community, they would be more hesitant to do anything damaging their home. However, the administra tion seems to have forgotten one terribly important con cept: the natural formation of communities, in a dormito ry like Hunt are not formed through arti ficial bound aries set by card scanners and doorways; they are formed by individu als who meet by chance or circumstance, and once formed, are not easily broken. The'occupants of Hunt, once the scanners were installed, immediately cried out in unison because of the sudden disappearance of a privilege to which they had grown accustomed to: All- Hunt Access. Lacking faith in the ability of the administra tion to listen to the students, and the ability of student gov erning bodies to bring about any change, some set to work removing the problem the easiest way possible: vandal ism. It turned out that the administration, by trying to carve fissures into communi ties long since established, only ended up rousing com munal loyalties that resulted in the destruction of many card scanners. The vandalism that occurred in the past was, quite simply, stupid stuff that peo ple did just to get attention and make themselves feel special. However, the "van dalism" regarding the door locks in Hunt is of a different breed altogether. Students committed these acts with all of Hunt's interests in mind. These students did not brag or boast of these actions. The students involved did this service for every resident of Hunt, thinking not of them selves, but engaging in self less acts of courage, willingly risking their attendance at NCSSM to defend the present ■■■i and I "In the past. Hunt has "been responsible for more tomfoolery than any of the Communities other dorms... combined future unity of the resi dents of Hunt. Hunt seems much more unified than it was last year, or, as alumni say, in many past years. The administration has successfully made us more dedicated to the community, but that unification had differ ent results than they anticipat ed. The administration con tinues to spout whatever rhet oric they can get their hands on which may swing parts of the school to their side. If this means presenting one side of an argument without another, so be it. Perhaps they don't think things through, but allow us to present an example: The administration (hereafter referred to as "Vicki" because we're tired of typing "the administration") has remarked that they are very happy that Hunt seems to be cleaner this year with the addition of the card scanners. However, Vicki seems to have forgotten that the presence of the card scanners is not the only thing that has changed in Hunt. It would seem that she has forgotten that Warren Basket's black Corvette no longer occupies its parking space near the PEC. Mike Newbauer has taken his role as Head of Housekeeping, and we firmly believe that this has more to do with the spick- and-span-izing of Hunt than the addition of the keycards. Also on the subject of things that have changed since last year, what about all of this stress that everyone's experiencing this year? I'm sure everyone remembers how very stressed out all of the seniors were last year (Note: Sarcasm). Well, what has changed since last year to cause all of this stress? Among many things, there is the new keycard sys tem. Could this be the variable causing the difference between the stress levels of this year and preceding years? It is certainly quite valid. Just as our mind can project sub conscious thought and mean ing on to physical objects (think Rorschach ink blots), physical objects can affect our subconscious in a similar manner. This is the basic principle behind all billboards, TV com mercials, and other visual propaganda or adver tisement. By placing these phys ical barri ers that restrict our freedom, they could also have placed barriers within our psyches resulting in a lack of emotion al homeostasis, which ulti mately resulted in our being stressed. Perhaps Vicki should have put more thought into the reasons for stress before blaming academics. By placing these physi cal barriers that restrict our freedom, they could also have placed barriers within our psyches resulting in a lack of emotional homeostasis, which ultimately result ed in our being stressed." j Hunt Andrew Chen Now, Vicki's main reason for dissolving our cross-hall, cross-side communities lies in the results of a few studies which showed that smaller groups tended to learn better and simply function better overall. We looked for these studies very carefully, and we're not confident we found the ones they used. We did, however, find some others, and there seemed to be a threshold point under which the community would function very well and above which it would start to decline in functionality. The number was some where around a hundred and fifty. Let it also be pointed out that the occupancy of Hunt lies somewhere just around a hundred and fifty, and is much more of an ideal size, accord ing to the studies we found, than seventy-five. Is there hope for Hunt? No one knows, but we're not terribly optimistic about the future. The senior class is probably the only one that will care. Our juniors might, but their jun iors will not have ever known any thing different and will not think to ques tion why the elevator alcove sepa rates them. After all, how often has it come up that Hunt residents have wanted easy access to Hill at all times? Not very often. Communities that have already been split when peo ple are introduced to them are not often formed back togeth er, and this, frankly, is why we're so upset. versus Hill Ravi Raghuram and Charlie Stone T hrough the ages, there have been many great rivalries: Duke v. Carolina, the Pope v. Satan, and Britney Spears v. Justin Timberlake. But the greatest of them all is Hill v. Hunt. "What's Hunt?" -Aditya Devalapalli "When I think of Hunt, I think back to the days of my child hood: running through the grass on a summer mom, eat ing Sunny Slope brand Carolina peaches with Grams, listening to Cee-Lo - "Closet Freak," of course - and nights laying awake, just thinking of the color blue. Now what was your question again?" -Chris Haagen "Without evil, there is no good. Without darkness, there is no light. And without Hunt, there is no Hill." -Julian Himes "Hill is a tinderbox and Hunt would take four days to bum." -Davis Bowen "Hill is Lothlorien in the shad ow of Hunt's Mount Doom." -Paul Smith "Hunt - we're bigger than them." -Charlie Stone "They have cinder block walls, and it's always cold. They stay in their rooms, and their computers are. their girl friends. If some'of them do have girlfriends, they will never say that their boyfriends are from Hunt, because they are ashamed." -N. Chuck Patel Seniors Charlie Stone from Hunt and Ravi Raghuram from Hill battle it out to see which building is better.
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