Photo by: Andrew Fielding
DU has made ripples in the world of higher education by increasing the amount of copper and tuition on campus, but its sought after flood of revenue, appearance and perjury will only squirt other educational institutions once we’re long gone. Depending on the shade of crimson you bleed, we will only be fortunate to watch this monster wave break. Ten years from now, with a few $47,000 checks cashed, DU will supposedly be, and I quote a 2001, 3.2 GPA real estate alumni, “the Ivy League of the west coast.”
This is an interesting comparison between DU and the institutions that have proficiently weathered the tests of time – Harvard just turned 375 – and makes me wonder, what separates the Pioneers from our Ivy League counterparts of John Harvards? My only answer is the quality of education or, our educational success. While anyone familiar with Corey Ciocchetti’s YouTube channel can tell you authentic success comes from chasing real rabbits. Shouldn’t we wonder what our success resembles?
An education is more or less what we’re after, so is our success valid once we’re draped in crimson and dressed with gold? This is the day we finally hold the piece of paper with the faux signature from our finest profiteer and most prized affiliate, Robert Coombe, which states we’ve been here these past four years and you know what? We’ve chased that rabbit so long that graduation is the first time we’ve lifted our heads. Authentic success indeed.
Maybe my chairlift conversation with the 2001 graduate held some kind of authenticity when he compared DU to that of its role models, but our conversation never led us to the topic of educational quality. Looking back on it, this topic was possibly ignored or even answered when he pulled a one hitter from his jacket and passed it in my direction. An act more authentic then Robert Coombe’s Hancock and the Daniels name on a 2007 Wall Street Journal Survey. This alumnus was here and I can tell you right now if that man was a 2001 graduate of any institution DU longs to be, I wouldn’t have gotten high that day.
So cheers DU for an excellent education. I can only hope when I’m grumpy, wrinkly and horrendously senile my crimson dyed mind will serve to return such an ethical act as the one I received that day.
