Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 93, No. 09, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 12, 1998 Page: 8 of 8
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THE BACK PAGE
8_November 12,1998
Megaphone
Garrett sets the record straight—for anyone who missed the point
■ *
Editor s note: The following piece was
submitted by a student and reflects the views
of that student. Consider this an extension of
the "Opinions" page...
O.K., so now they’ve pissed me off. I
am an easygoing person; I don’t get upset eas-
ily. But the anonymous letter sent by the “ma-
ture" student has really struck a nerve with
me. 3 have sat back all year long and listened
to the rhetoric from both sides of the issue,
and I have finally had it Someone needs to
say “STOP, LOOK, AND LISTEN.” So I will
say it: to all those who wonder why some stu-
dents are upset, Stop, Look, and Listen to what
I am going to say.
I go to this school for a few simple rea-
sons, but I don’t stay here because of many
others In other words, there are things that
are done that do not influence the reasons why
I came, why I stay, and why I will come back
after I graduate There arc a lot of other things
that are done and said that have had no impact
and will have no impact on my coming, stay-
ing, and coming back to SI) in the future.
I don't stay here for the trees in the park-
ing lots I don’t stay here for the new build-
ings I don't stay here for the pretty spray grass
and the mud everywhere where grass will
grow, and the flower beds and the fountains
or any of that. I don't stay here because of the
financial aid office and its mistakes, or the fact
that students rarely see our high administra-
tion. or that Marriot, despite the new facili
lies, still finds it difficult io serve the food I
want. I accept these things with grace, under-
standing, and maturity, I feel, and if I really
cared about any of this, I wouldn’t be here.
Nor would I have come here in the first place.
I didn’t come here, furthermore, for the
facilities or the location or the community of
Georgetown or the beautiful iMacs in the new
SUB They weren’t here when I enrolled, nor
was a SUB here, period. When I toured cam-
pus, all I got to see was Ruter. It was a late
scheduled tour, and I didn’t see anything but
Ruter and the Robertson Center. I am not
much of an athlete, so I really didn’t care about
that. Ruter is not the state of the art dorm that
compares to the stale of the art Olin Building,
either. So in the end, I will remember my first
visit to SU as not one of facilities but of people
and education and community on campus be-
tween intellectuals and scholars, striving to
better themselves, both in the classroom and
elsewhere. Call me sappy, but I was not im-
press with the campus but with the people.
“Mature” student, there are things that
you just don’t understand. Perhaps you
haven’t been here Song, perhaps you are out
of touch with the student body, or you aren’t
even a student at all. But I have come to real-
ize something in my three years here that is
very crucial to understanding how this cam-
pus works, how it breathes, and how it lives.
It’s not the buildings, stupid! It’s also not about
the money, the appearances by Dr. Shilling,
or “special use of campus facilities.” I DON’T
CARE! I don’t care if I ever get to sit in an
air-conditioned classroom again. My high
school was not air-conditioned anyway. I don’t
care if I ever get to
use the state-of-
the-art language
labs again. I don’t
care if I ever see
green grass on this
campus again I
cion i want to hurt
anyone’s feelings,
but the reason why
I am here is simple:
to learn That’s it!
The cat’s out of the
bag. Moreover, the silent majority on this cam-
pus is here for the same reason, to get an edu-
cation. Period. They were happy with the old
SUB, the commons, LK, and the old Cody
Library. Talk to alums when they come back.
Ask them if they like the new buildings.
They’ll say yeah, but they were happy with
the old ones too. Not much has changed
around SU’s campus, in reality. People still
come here for that formative experience they
call college, and nothing else, for the most part.
All over the nation, it’s the same story.
Students attend colleges in crime-ridden
neighoborhoods (Yale), in bizarre locations
(Dartmouth), and with less than excellent,
modern facilities ^Harvard). They go for the
express purpose of knowledge and obtaining
it. Knowledge of how to live life, knowledge
of being men and women, knowledge in the
pages of books and in lectures and in living
together collegially as human beings. They
care about little else. Simply put, they are at
school for at school for one reason: knowl-
edge.
At Southwestern, we have a unique ex-
perience, mature student. Lou miss the point
completely with your letter to the Megaphone.
I wish that you had the maturity to sit down
and talk with me and other student leaders
about why you fell the way that you do. Beau
and Gabby are upset because they feel the ad-
ministration is missing the point of what I have
said about: knowledge. We can have all the
buildings in the world, with beautiful lime-
stone edifices and green grass as far as the eye
can see, and donor programs that draw in
money from around the world to build a Tower
of Babel to the
sky! But if we
don’t have the
students, with
their ‘hirst for
knowledge and
experience, and
ihc faculty, with
their desire to
quench that thirst,
this university
would be nothing.
Southwestern
needs to understand that, without the unity of
students and the shared experiences we can
offer each other, and without the quality of fac-
ulty and the diversity of ways in which they
can confer on us knowledge and give us expe-
riences, all the construction and manicuring
of lawns is worthless. It is when people in the
administration, students like yourself, and even
donors fail to realize this that it hurts students
like Beau, Gabby, and myself. 1 appreciate
all the money that has been given, but if I can’t
feel it in my education, both here and after I
graduate, then to me, it is worthless. If twenty
years from now, I can’t remember the trip that
I might take to Spain to study document of
the Inquisition because there was no money
to fund it, what good is the millions of dollars
spent on a building I won’t remember? Makes
you think, doesn’t it, “mature” student?
I go to this school for the people. I go
for my dog in my fraternity house, and for that
fraternity also. I go to this school for Jan
Dawson, who cares so much about the devel-
opment of her students. I go to this school for
Dan Hilliard, Tim O’Neill, and Daniel Castro,
t go to this school for Tim Kubatsky, who is
working to create an endowed leadership pro-
gram for students. I go to this school for my
friends, like Mike Miles and Chad Connally
and Erica Hogue, and so many others. I go to
this school for Beau Gratzer and Gabby
Aguilar, who stand up when they see things
they don’t think are right. Lastly, 1 go to this
school because I believe in learning, and its
importance over appearances. To me, that’s
real maturity. Some people have it, and some
don’t. Most students on this campus do, how-
ever, and that is what makes it the school it is,
and what has kept me here for three years.
I hope that 1 didn’t offend anyone by
these comments. But like I said, I am pissed
off now. I have tried to be a good little stu-
dent and ask questions and listen attentively.
But I can’t anymore. It is my iob as VP of
Student Congress and as a person that holds
several other offices on campus to make sure
that other students know about issues, and to
let your letter go answered would be me fail-
ing to do my job. So, when YOU grow up,
“mature” student, I encourage you to reevalu-
ate why you are here and consider why you
are still here if you can’t reach a different con-
clusion than the one you seem to have now. I
hope that our donors and some members of
the administration realize this also: you can’t
buy a great school or build it with stone and
mortar. You can only hope to lay the founda-
tion or structure on^vhich it is built. It is those
school that fill their building with hungry stu-
dents and brilliant faculty, and encourage stu-
dent unity and development that are truly great.
If members of the administration and donors
haven’t realized this now, I feel bad about all
that wasted money.
Respectfully submitted,
Taylor Garrett
o'. j
V
/
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Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 93, No. 09, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 12, 1998, newspaper, November 12, 1998; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth634601/m1/8/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Southwestern University.