Newspapers / Meredith College Student Newspaper / Feb. 29, 2012, edition 1 / Page 8
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Whines & Gripes collected by Danielle Smith I can’t figure out why nobody walks on the grass. I mean, it’s not against the Honor Code, right? I love when professors tell us to spell-check our PowerPoints when they don’t even spell-check their own. Did you see that guy in BDH? I didn’t even know what a mono gram was until I got to MC. Man, these impressions for the front page are depressing. I walked away when he thought Vineyard Vines was just a tjpe of wine. Dear student in the front row, do you realize that you look like a su per-stalker when you flip through hundreds of photos of one person on Facebook? My boyfriend always parallel parks for me. I don’t understand why “special speakers” come and bash women at a women’s college ... blows my mind. Is it wrong that I hate my little? Once again the gingers get thrown under the bus. Thanks for the maroon gowns. Her classroom was covered with glitter and zebra print. Right then, I knew she was a Meredith alumna. Emily and Ashleigh are trippin’. |The date has read 2011 in the last two issues. Do I look like a mom in this? Dear professor, I graduate in May. Dinner and movie after? Giving up booty calls for Lent is probably not what the Old Tsta- ment advised. I see you Tweeting about me in class. Am I the only one who feels like an old maid? .. .it’s because she was home- schooled. Responses to “Welcome to College “No Welcome Needed; I’m Already Here,” by Julia Dent, Staff Writer In the last issue of The Herald, some of you may have read a response to an article I wrote for an online publication. As a freshman and aspiring journalist, I was very excited to receive my first paid writ ing contract with a publication. The article also drew some attention here on campus because, after all, it is about how happy I am with my decision to attend Meredith College. I would like to clarify a few points that were contained in the response be cause I wouldn’t want anyone to take away a meaning different than I intended. So let me share some thoughts on what is not intended in my article. First, the article is not an “opinion piece.” It is a statement of my lived experience. It is about my thoughts and feelings on the experience of making the transition from high school to college. I started my article talking about look ing at colleges during high school. UNC Chapel Hill was my top pick for its jour nalism program. I called it a “prominent and prestigious university” because of its reputation, but I never said it was more prominent and prestigious as was said in the written response. I was reluctant to look at what Meredith College had to offer because I was not interested in attending a women’s college. However, once I stepped onto Meredith’s campus, “I immediately fell in love with it” and “grew to adore other aspects of the school as well.” Once I learned more about Meredith and visited the campus, I discovered what an amazing college it is and all of the wonderful pro grams it has to offer, hence why I am here now. I hoped that readers would laugh with me (and, lovingly, at me), at the fact that taking “pity” on an admissions repre sentative actually changed the trajectory of my life and helped me because it brought me to Meredith. Even if a reader wouldn’t find my humor funny, I hope she or he would not leap to a conclusion that Mer edith is a “backward, lowly girls’ school.” The response pointed out that I wrote “but the part that really caught my at tention was that since there aren’t any boys, most of the girls go to class in just t-shirts or pajamas without wearing any make-up.” It was taken as an implication that Meredith women “do not care about looking the part of intelligent, on-point, put-together students,” which was not my intention at all. I had observed that the students wearing casual clothes to classes had caught my attention because I saw how comfortable all of the students were with each other. They do not feel the need to impress other students with their outfits. The response said, “many students work hard to maintain a reputation of aca demic seriousness, intellectual curiosity, and professionalism, and these qualities factor into the way they dress.” I have seen Meredith women expressing themselves in a wide variety of fashion (including casual dress), but this does not correlate with their intelligence. While I applaud and admire those who “dress well,” I do not believe that this makes them more intelligent than those who dress more casually. In my article, I wrote that one of my professors was “opinionated, and he often intimidated students in class.” Please don’t deduce from this state ment that I do not appreciate academic freedom or do not want viewpoints I may hold challenged. The response notes that academic freedom includes the right of “the students to freedom in learning.” In the one course I wrote about, I simply wished I had experi enced more of this freedom. I am grateful that my lived experi ence grows day by day, and I know quite a bit more about Meredith than I did when I wrote the initial article. I appreciate the wonderful community of women here who come from back grounds of wealth or of poverty, who are interested in sports or are not, who are liberal or conservative. We all share the desire to learn and put our knowledge to use. I am also thankful that so many people, and even profes sional writers, took the time to contact me and provide constructive feedback to encourage me in my writing. If I can provide you any additional informa tion about my article, please feel free to email me at dentjuli@meredith.edu. “Another Perspective” by Beverly Mecum, Contribut ing Writer After reading an opinion piece in the February 15, 2012 issue of The Mere dith Herald, I felt I must reply as I take issue with the overall tone of the piece. Staff writer Kristen Gallagher responds to a “Real Education” commentaiy by Julia Dent on the John William Pope Center website. Gallagher uses three major “lessons” to make her points; therefore I shall address each lesson as well. “Lesson One - Consider the impact of your words.” Dent was asked to give com mentary, not write a scholarly paper. I found her article to be written in a way that leads the reader to believe one is in an easy conversation with the writer. I too applaud Dent for her “extra curricular activities” as she is expand ing her knowledge and experiences within her chosen field. Participating in social forums is just one of the many things I should think college encour ages in its students. Her expressing her expectations of college prior to at tending Meredith is hers alone to give , and not subject to critical review. It is what it is—her pre-conceived ideas of an experience yet to come. I think she articulated well her falling in love with the campus, developing relationships, and finding meaning to the college experience beyond, drinking, drugging, and partying. “Lesson Two - Don’t generalize about your peers; some of us do, indeed, dress well.” Somebody needs to wake up and look around. Maybe not most, but surely a large number of the student body does indeed go to class in pajamas, or extremely casual wear. I think that’s what makes going to the all-girl school so appealing - there is no competition for the attention of boys. This gives girls room to develop more personal, lifelong friendships, and networks of profes sional collaborators for career potential. I can be “academically serious and intel lectually curious in pajamas or pearls. “Lesson Three - Meredith College seeks to challenge and inspire its stu dents.” I agree with Dent in that most of my professors have leaned toward liberal beliefs. If Dent did not feel prepared to debate her ethics professor, surely that does not withhold credence to her sense of personal values. Again, these are her personal values that may or may not have been those she held since high school. College is not meant to channel our views, but to challenge them so that we may be more prepared to make better decisions. The professor is entitled to his opinions, but the best professor teaches, not preaches. The best professor should stimulate thought, not condemn or demean those thoughts not representative of his/her own. As for Dent’s opinion of the professor’s atti tude and conduct in the classroom, I can assure you this is not news to any col lege’s administration. Criticism should be stimulus for academia, not only for the students but for the teaching staff as well. The professor should regard Dent’s comments as possibly reflective of other students in his classroom as well. I will close by saying I am only tak ing up Gallagher’s request for dialogue and whole-heartedly agree there should be one. I am not your typical college student in that I am almost 53 years old. I have two-to-three times the life experience of many of these students. I am comfortable confronting opposing opinions whether they are those of a fellow student, professor, or administra tive staff. I fully believe Meredith does intend for our thought processes to be expanded and enriched by our instruc tors and experiences. I do not condone channeling those processes into a singu lar pattern of thought. It is the diversity of thought that makes us each uniquely special and an asset to the world. One final note; Gallagher gave person al editorial regarding a lack of scholarly composition in Dent’s words, stating she found “what essentially boils down to an immature blog post.” As a member of the newspaper staff and contributing writer to this edition of The Meredith Herald, perhaps she should have noted on the front page beside the paper’s ban ner that the date is incorrect.
Meredith College Student Newspaper
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Feb. 29, 2012, edition 1
8
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