03/28/08

As I look around campus recently, my heart breaks.

In a manly way of course, but it still breaks.

You see, I just don’t get the decisions being made by the higher-ups on campus anymore.

Maybe I didn’t care last year, maybe I was just unaware, but all in all, it seems that Baker has gone significantly downhill during this current school year.

I don’t think I’m alone in these concerns, but maybe it is my egotistical self telling me lies again.

Because I still don’t know where the peanut butter came from.

Anyway, I just thought that for this week I would voice some of these concerns because venting is therapeutic – at least to me it is.

I’d say the first thing on my mind is simply Baker’s admissions standards.

Anymore, it seems like anyone with enough money or physical prowess can get in. I’ve already beaten this horse senseless, but it’s not quite dead. It soon shall be. Granted, most of what I hear is probably just a rumor of some sort, but I hear it from people in senate (who really do know what’s going on), so I trust most of it.

It’s ridiculously easy to get in here, but when you have a new dorm to pay for, a business needs all the customers it can get.

This brings me to my next point: Baker as a business.

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that some people at Baker don’t care about me, just the twice-a-year check I give them. This saddens me.

I know that Baker is a university that provides a service to the students in the form of education.

I appreciate that, but I feel that it’s being approached in the wrong way.

I don’t appreciate the constrictions being placed on students to guarantee the university a hefty check.

Yes, I could transfer, but by this time I’ve already made quite a bit of headway on my major, and I’m not too keen on throwing that all away simply because the green monster has a hold on some of our higher ups.

Yes, they provide a service, but if the price keeps going up and the service stays the same (or it goes down even), then I don’t think it’s worth paying for anymore.

A service can’t exist without customers. I’m just saying.

However, I must say that the single biggest source of frustration in my life right now is simply some of the antiquated policies that this university has.

I know we’re the oldest university in Kansas, but does that mean we have to act like Grandpa and be scared of every new thing that comes along?

I understand the visitation hours; I just think they could use some revising.

I don’t agree that everyone in the residence halls needs a meal plan – some of our mothers actually taught us to cook for less than $13 a day.

I also don’t see the reasoning behind not allowing Xbox LIVE or other such programs to connect.

It has frustrated me to no end and doesn’t appear to have many solutions either.

I almost transferred last year due to the fact that I didn’t like it here.

Luckily, a stalwart group of friends and professors banded together and beat down my stubborn will.

I’m still here.

I hope to stay here, but it’s starting to look like Baker University simply may not want me anymore. Sad day.