Thursday, June 10, 2004
Dalhousie now sells trucker hats which is laughable, but begs the question, when will they start selling baby tees with phrases like "My boyfriend's away at [rival university]" or "Don't hate because I'm sleeping with your boyfriend, hate me because I go to Dalhousie". I'm sure you can all think up your own Dalhousie specific t-shirts using this site as inspiration.
The funny thing is is that they wouldn't sell lame trucker hats at the university bookstore if noone wouldn't buy them. I mean it's the same as those awful sweat pants that have phrases like "Dal Kicks Ass" emblazoned across the the back. They sell them because there are morons who will buy them. Which brings me to my next point...
I know a lot of people complain that university is not available to everyone because of high tuition fees, but in all honesty some people really shouldn't be at university (maybe I'm one of them). I'm not saying that the rising tuition fees keeps the riff-raff out, because it certainly doesn't, but there's a lot of people at university who decided they were bored after high school and wanted something to do. If anything rising tuitions costs keeps the riff-raff in university. If I have to hear another idiot with a cellphone, carrying around a laptop, while drinking an espresso macchiato, complain about how they're a poor student, I'm going to carve my own heart out with a spoon. You're not poor! You're at university, you're actually enjoying a pretty decent quality of life, you are not poor. There's a lot of people who really are poor who would love to kick our asses for comments like that.
University is a privilege, it isn't a right, and a lot of middle class and upper middle class kids like myself refuse to see and admit that. We aren't owed free university by virtue of our existence. It's bullshit to think that. It's terribly unfortunate that we take that for granted. Amongst a number of student activists there does seem to be a sincere and genuine concern that university isn't an option for all because of class and finanical standing. However, there also seems to be a selfish undercurrent amongst a number of students that it's not so much that they want universities open to everyone, but that they just don't want to dent their own bank accounts.
To enroll oneself in an undergraduate university program, you don't have to prove you want to learn, you just have to prove you have the money. Something about that just seems fundamentally wrong to me.
The funny thing is is that they wouldn't sell lame trucker hats at the university bookstore if noone wouldn't buy them. I mean it's the same as those awful sweat pants that have phrases like "Dal Kicks Ass" emblazoned across the the back. They sell them because there are morons who will buy them. Which brings me to my next point...
I know a lot of people complain that university is not available to everyone because of high tuition fees, but in all honesty some people really shouldn't be at university (maybe I'm one of them). I'm not saying that the rising tuition fees keeps the riff-raff out, because it certainly doesn't, but there's a lot of people at university who decided they were bored after high school and wanted something to do. If anything rising tuitions costs keeps the riff-raff in university. If I have to hear another idiot with a cellphone, carrying around a laptop, while drinking an espresso macchiato, complain about how they're a poor student, I'm going to carve my own heart out with a spoon. You're not poor! You're at university, you're actually enjoying a pretty decent quality of life, you are not poor. There's a lot of people who really are poor who would love to kick our asses for comments like that.
University is a privilege, it isn't a right, and a lot of middle class and upper middle class kids like myself refuse to see and admit that. We aren't owed free university by virtue of our existence. It's bullshit to think that. It's terribly unfortunate that we take that for granted. Amongst a number of student activists there does seem to be a sincere and genuine concern that university isn't an option for all because of class and finanical standing. However, there also seems to be a selfish undercurrent amongst a number of students that it's not so much that they want universities open to everyone, but that they just don't want to dent their own bank accounts.
To enroll oneself in an undergraduate university program, you don't have to prove you want to learn, you just have to prove you have the money. Something about that just seems fundamentally wrong to me.
# posted by Die Brucke @ 1:16 PM 
