I am writing, not so much as a faculty member or as part of our administration, but as a father whose son is having those last-minute discussions and making those last-minute campus visits to decide where he is going to spend the next four years of his life. He's done his homework, thought about it carefully, but in the end, first impressions of his future surroundings will contribute heavily to his decision, I am afraid.
I thought about this a lot two weekends ago as I had the good fortune to participate in some Dimensions events. On Thursday and Saturday, I spoke to parents and prospective students about the transition to college, and at the end of each presentation I took a variety of questions about life here at the College. Sure, there were questions about classes and the D-plan, but there were also lots of questions about alcohol and social life. I did my best to answer the questions and help people understand our commitment to student responsibility and safety, but one exchange left me feeling like I could not give them an answer that would do justice to their question.
After one of my presentations, a parent and prospective student waited patiently until the crowd had died down and they were practically the only people in the room. They approached me and related a story of how the prospective student had encountered some friends of her host who had dropped by while the host was out. The friends, the student reported, had been drinking and were causing the prospective some anxiety. The situation was eventually resolved with no harm to any of the parties, but the parent put it bluntly when she asked me, "Is this how things are here? Is this what we can expect?" I talked about the options the student would have had if he encountered a similar situation in a residence hall (undergraduate advisors, Community directors, even Safety and Security could have helped), but in truth I was not answering their question.
They wanted me to have some wise words to counter this newfound impression of our beloved community. And I found it hard to provide more than lip service to their worries about the culture of alcohol and, ultimately, the issue of safety that surrounds it. My assurances sounded even more hollow to me as I was reminded of that week's issue of The Mirror, which celebrated a drinking game, and one hopefully tongue-in-cheek essay that started with "Hey prospies -- this one's for you!" ("Line Art," April 18). Unsurprisingly, all of the prospective students I met this weekend were underage.
In a different part of my professional life, I am guiding another senior thesis this semester. I look forward to my weekly meeting with my student with nothing but admiration and respect for her ability to cast a good argument, collect interesting data and, now, argue back and forth during the writing process. I wish I could have left those prospective families with the impression of this free exchange of ideas and genuine scholarship. No one asked me about that, though. Instead I had to offer, "One poor experience does not make ... " and "It is like this at other places."
I am not arguing for stricter policies, or censorship of a good student newspaper or even trying to be something we are not for the sake of visitors. I am really just asking for us to think about how we would like to be perceived. What do we look like to those who want to join our community? Are potential members turning away because they never find out the full range of who we really are? Can't we expect more from ourselves? I still believe in the integrity and scholarship of the students who come to join us in Hanover, but I also look forward to the time when parents and prospective students ask me fewer questions about alcohol and discipline and more questions about all that is good and cherished in our community. Our reputation, and the impressions we leave with others, should be built on the latter and not the former.
