Have you ever paid for a chicken breast from Food Court with real dollar bills? When is the last time you paid for a drink and tipped the bartender at a frat, or checked your administrative fees balance on BannerStudent?
We are all consumers in the Dartmouth microcosm -- which is an implicit result of the capitalistic model. However, a local analysis reveals many troubling truths about Dartmouth's use and abuse of material goods.
The easiest place to start is sustainability. While the word itself has become somewhat of a bromide, it is a good lily pad for exposition.
The greatest challenge we face as a nation is environmental protection, and yet the issue remains remarkably poorly addressed at Dartmouth. Although several campus activists have made efforts to quash waste, their battle seems to be one of attrition. Hundreds of pounds of food are left on plates or thrown out at dining halls each day, and they're not even used for compost at the organic farm. Air conditioners, lights and computers are left on all day, and indulgent showering must contribute to astronomical water bills (that's you, Sphinx!).
The most obvious environmental apathy exists in frat basements in the form of recycling -- or lack thereof. It's not just a fraternity problem; brothers are responsible for cleaning the Augean messes that ungrateful students make every time they visit. The labor is available, but there is no established system for recycling these cans.
And, while the closest recycling plant for Keystone Light cans is forty minutes from campus, certain frats that have chosen to recycle are getting over $100 each week in can deposits. Not only would an established program represent prudent environmentalism, it would also be a great way to save money.
The greatest obstacle to a successful campus-wide recycling program is student apathy. Fraternities want to recycle, but how can we tell students to throw out empty cans in a specific bin? This should be a shock, but it's actually proved difficult for Ivy League students to perform this simple task.
This discourse touches upon a larger penumbra of issues outside of sustainability. The College's culture of waste extends to a more common ignorance of money's value. Generally, few students consider DBA to be real money, although food values correspond to real costs. It's much easier to get someone to buy you dinner at Food Court than at Molly's, despite similar prices and compromised quality.
DASH is similarly considered to be a fake currency by most students, who often get funding for this account directly from their parents for laundry -- and spend it directly on bake sales. This is only further complicated by the strange attraction people have for free food: although DBA is worthless to most, free food offerings draw huge crowds. Because someone else is paying. Just like at frat basements.
Our devil-may-care mindset exists within the greater realm of our educational and living expenses. Few students fear dorm damages or other administrative fees because, they claim, "It's my parents' money." Who cares if I break my dorm window or do damage to someone's property? Just "college bill" me.
This approach is only underscored by exorbitant tuition fees, to which only some students contribute themselves.
This allowance ideology -- that everything is free and that someone else is paying -- is the greatest sign of our residual immaturity.
Overcoming the ignorance of externalities (a nod to you econ majors), whether they be environmental, fiscal, or personal (emotional, specifically), seems to be the Goldbach conjecture for most Dartmouth students. As we approach our upperclassmen years, hopefully we can learn to address this numbing apathy with a more adult sense of awareness.
