It’s a joke. If you have a few extra minutes during the day, stop by the computer in the printer room on the third floor of Sturm. If you go to “My Documents” or check the “Recycling Bin” on the computer, there are usually a few Word documents from your average DU student. Read one. Go ahead.
But be ready to laugh-and maybe cry. Your fellow classmates simply do not care-about their work, about their education, maybe even about their own lives.
Everybody can B.S. his or her way through a paper, and indeed, most of us have at one time or another in our college careers. And sure, most of us have probably taken a day off from class before, whether by not attending or by not contributing on that particular day. But if you are unable to see the overwhelming and widespread apathy that hangs over every classroom-every day-you better look again.
Students arrive late, doze off during class, and leave early. Class discussions often consist of three or four students talking seemingly to each other and the instructor while the rest of the students snicker or instant message each other on their laptops.
We have all sat in class while the undergrad next to us grabs his or her vibrating phone and sends text message after text message, paying no mind to the efforts of the professor. Group presentations are usually a bore, and it is truly rare when even one presenter really cares about the subject or the course. And you can forget about solid attendance on Fridays.
When the Princeton Review published its findings in the last two years that DU was among the least diversely interactive colleges in the nation, few students reacted to the news. It is this apathy that has prevented different groups on campus from interacting with one another in the first place.
But regrettably, this argument likely falls on the wrong ears, as most people reading this editorial are individuals who do care. If the average apathetic student even reads the Clarion, it’s probably to skim the major articles and their headlines, or maybe to check the “Crime” section to see if any of his or her friends’ shenanigans over the weekend made the campus newspaper.
Maybe it’s the age group. Being a part of the so-called “Generation-Y,” we are stereotyped in the media as a lazy, politically lethargic and dispassionate, hard-partying group.
Since DU is the most expensive school in the state at over $40,000 a year-and increasing-it’s probable that many of us come from families that make more money than average, another stipulation which carries similar assumptions of the “rich kid mentality” with it, most notably that children from affluent families are likely less motivated to make an extra effort in school because they have family money to fall back on.
Or maybe it’s the professors who fail to care enough to push everybody to give a full effort. But anyone preaching this viewpoint should realize that this isn’t high school any more. In either event, the responsibility still rests on the individual student to push him- or herself.
Perhaps this isn’t just a phenomenon at DU. There are surely apathetic college students at every institution of higher learning. While there may be a growing number of these disinterested individuals on our campus, there is always a solid group of highly productive, motivated, caring students, too.
Maybe the true reward for those not giving in to laziness and carelessness is success-not just academically, but in life.
That may sound clichCB), but in the face of a careless mentality that seems to say, “C’s get degrees,” the hard-working, attentive, dynamic student is sure to find success in all areas of life, here at DU and beyond.
The point is, no matter what kind of student or person you are, you can always be better, and seeking to grow and change for the better is what college-and indeed, life-is all about. While we may never see the end of apathy at DU, we can always work to eradicate it from our own lives.
