Wake up CSC students, this is the real world

It’s obvious we attend a school that has denigrated study of the Humanities when the article in The Eagle that gets the most comments and letters is an opinion entitled “Don’t be a Scary Mary.”

Maybe if more students on campus were encouraged to read anything other than textbooks, more would be aware that newspapers are composed of multiple sections. Unless the section they are reading is labeled “News,” its content is not intended to be taken as a serious reckoning of facts that affect each reader’s life.

If our collective attitude is lackadaisical enough that so many don’t feel it isn’t important to dress like they actually planned on leaving home that day, then why do those same people care what is printed in the newspaper?

From the responses The Eagle has gotten, it’s clear that while a few students who occasionally wear sweats were offended, the majority who wrote in crying foul are habitual under-dressers. It’s also clear that many who wrote in didn’t even bother to read the whole article.

The column should be treated as the light and fluffy non-news that it is and the student body should be discussing more substantial things than everyone’s stance pro or contra sweatpants and messy buns.

If everyone were ripping Jon Marquez up and down for negatively mentioning how women are “grumpy once a month” that would be legitimate. But, as far as I’m aware, only one response has mentioned this, while most others have resembled the braying of a pack of asses.

It’s perfectly arguable that athletes, people coming straight from the gym, or anyone who’s sick have an excuse for not looking like they’ve got it all together. Those who choose to look that way all the time are letting everyone else know they don’t have a high opinion of what’s going on in the classroom.

Their appearance says that this is only college, so what does it matter? It’s not like serious intellectual pursuits happen here. We only need to dress the part when we’re being paid to be somewhere, but not while we’re paying to be here! College is just a series of hurdles that young people have to get through before they get into “the real world.”

We are already in the real world. What we do here at school is preparation for what we do in the future. Caring about our day-to-day appearance is just as important as the effort we make in class.

Maybe if students were more concerned with the liberal arts, they wouldn’t fall prey to such shortcomings. But maybe the lack of recognition of reality is institutional. The pursuit of knowledge is not important in the new wave of post-secondary education. College isn’t a place that makes well-rounded analytical thinkers of people anymore.

We don’t have vibrant, multi-viewpoint discussions of politics, or recycling, or wars overseas. We don’t have discussion about how the state government, the Nebraska State College System, or the Student Senate allocates our money. One would think that the money angle at least would raise some people’s attention—and hackles.

But reading, thinking, and understanding—some of the best things about being a human—don’t seem to be what’s important about college, so all we get is “I’m deeply offended that you said my slovenly appearance is offensive.”

College is the last place where we are shielded from the full consequences of making fools of ourselves, but it’s still the real world. We should be arming ourselves with the full array of knowledge and time to grow as individuals that higher learning has to offer.

Just because our institution isn’t necessarily concerned with our development as humans, doesn’t mean that we should feel free to leave propriety by the wayside.

It’s likely the institution’s goal is to give students the quickest, most profitable education (for the institution) and thrust them into a job market where their degrees usually don’t matter.

Few people are going to tell us this up front, but if you’re not going on to get a masters or a doctorate, then many of your job skills are going to be are learned in the first year on the job. But that doesn’t matter as long as we keep paying that tuition.

The current direction of higher education would have students believe whatever pays the bills is most important.

We’ve been led to believe that a college can only value the bottom line and ensure every graduate lands a well-paying job.

We can only hope that job demands as little as college does, while giving as much in return—including affording enough free time to argue over how bad or good each other’s clothing looks.