Let us pretend for a moment that we all go to a reputable state university somewhere in northwest Ohio.
Let us also pretend that the school we go to has given the impression of growth and improvement for some years now; new buildings have been going up steadily, donors have stepped forward to make extremely generous contributions to expand the university and its sports teams have become a true force to be reckoned with in the past four years; granting the university even more prestige and renown.
If this were the case, would any of us like to believe that it was all nothing more than an illusion?
What if the university had been laying off shameful numbers of faculty members in order to protect its own image as well as those of certain individuals controlling the more subtle and intimate machinations of the university’s expansion?
What if protests against this disregard for the importance of education had been held, but ultimately brushed aside by the monster that is for-profit academia?
What if we began fearing that our degrees were becoming less and less valuable with each new monument to the university’s poor set of priorities? What if I told you this wasn’t a fictional place at all?
It’s hard sometimes to focus on anything in school, especially if you’re living on campus. Parties, exams, relationships and our hobbies can make it difficult to see certain things for what they really are.
But as a senior at the University, I’ve been here long enough to know what I like and what I don’t about the University and its people.
I like the Oaks. I like the well-kept grounds and their beauty in the fall and springtime. I like the rare moments of quiet and solitude that I can find in the cemetery even if people stare at me for doing so.
I don’t like noisy neighbors. I don’t like pop quizzes. I hated my genernal education courses when I had to take them.
All of those things amounted only to minor annoyances in the scope of the wonderful experience I’ve had here, but if anything really leaves a bad taste in my mouth about our beloved Bowling Green, it will be seeing, in retrospect, what is was and what it has become.
The truth is that our University supposedly exists to provide education to its students, but what I have seen instead is a misappropriation of tuition dollars that has only grown uglier and more pervasive as the years have gone by.
Our athletic teams have the nicest stadiums and equipment we can possibly afford to give them and our head football coach makes more than the president of the university; yet we wonder why teachers are being cut?
I think simple facts like these say more about our University’s misplaced and shamefully hollow priorities than my words, or anyone else’s ever could.
I’m proud to be a Falcon, and as corny as this might sound, that isn’t about a logo emblazoned onto millions of key chains, mugs, hoodies and t-shirts; it’s about what’s in my heart.
I identify with Bowling Green because of the people I’ve met here and the experiences I’ve had, but the current administration’s actions reflect an attitude of profit over people and image over education. I’d hate to one day call Bowling Green my alma mater and see that she has been reduced to nothing more than a cash cow.
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