I just checked my midterm grades. Five or six little letters: Ss and Ps, As and Cs. All sorts of weird little symbols on WebAdvisor to take your academic pulse. Let’s be real, do these letters tell us anything? How many times has a prof said, “Oh, you’re all getting As for your midterm grades because there hasn’t been enough material to truly reflect your work…” … Continue reading Learning to love mediocrity
Hi. I’m Jenna, and … I’m an out-of-state Gustie. This is the part where you make me feel better by greeting me en-masse with a sympathetic “Hi, Jenna.” Come on, I know there’s only like 400 of you, but really. Courtesy, people. Thank you. Now. I’m an out-of-state Gustie. I’m not here to vent about how impossible it is to pronounce town names up here … Continue reading Family matters
He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. —Benjamin Franklin Mid-terms have come and gone. Shocking as it may seem, we are now halfway through the semester. For most of us, there is now a regular pattern for the week of class, work, homework and organizational meetings. The ritual is now comfortable and familiar. It’s a pattern that will … Continue reading …fed up with your excuses
At the end of this year, Gustavus, led by our fearless leader Roley Poley Ohle, will make a decision on which soda company the school will use for the first time since 1997. While this debate has been constructed by the duality of Pepsi v. Coke, let us not forget that these are not our only two options. Unlike using a vote for a third … Continue reading Minnesoda
The warm, reassuring sense of security is a great feeling. It’s like being hugged by an enormous, friendly, bullet-proof ghost. Thank goodness there’s a task force on campus apparently dedicated to instilling and cultivating this feeling within the student body. I’m talking about Campus Safety, of course. Formerly known as “Safety & Security,” Campus Safety took the opportunity to streamline their name several years ago … Continue reading To serve and disturb
The above phrase may paint a picture in your mind of college clichés: drunken toga parties, stacks of empty pizza boxes, or playing frisbee in the mall. Somehow this doesn’t resonate with Gustavus. Sure, we play frisbee and gorge on Godfather’s once in a while (R.I.P. PJ’s), but when it comes to toga parties, Gustavus’s rank as the 20th most sober school in the country … Continue reading The college experience
I got the chance to learn last week about an incredibly important piece of legislation making its way through Congress this year. It’s called the Dream Act, meant to help tens of thousands of children illegally brought to this country by family members to gain rights that all people should have access to. As I sat in this meeting, I was struck with disbelief at … Continue reading We need to think about ourselves a little more, yes?
Have you seen him? I have no idea where he is. It’s four o’clock already and he’s got classes until one-thirty, and the kid comes back to the room religiously afterward. Um, is that not a red flag that something is horribly wrong? How am I even supposed to read my biology book and watch Family Guy at the same time without wondering where the … Continue reading Where’s My Roommate?!
Few among us can say that bathroom graffiti has profoundly influenced our political views. That hasn’t stopped some Gustavus students from trying to influence us, though, as anyone who ever spent a study break on a library toilet has doubtless witnessed. I recently found one such piece very intriguing, however: the ominous pronouncement that “CAPITALISM FAILED BIG TIME.” We have to assume that at least … Continue reading The McNasty side of capitalism
Gustavus hates conservatives. You know it’s true. It’s not the fact that the liberal professors are indoctrinating the students in preparation for a Communist revolution, nor is it the fact that we allow, *shudder*, atheists on our campus. Conservatives must be so outnumbered and so closed off from the rest of the school because there is a systematic plan to get rid of them all, … Continue reading Why Gustavus hates Conservatives
