Alas, no football. What will colleges do with all those empty
parking lots. While bartenders are crying in their unsold beer, we wonder
why the people who run colleges aren’t as smart of the students.
Colleges across the land are in a tizzy.
It’s back to school at America’s majors and their wannabes. Dorms open?
Dorms closed? Something in between? Athletics on? Athletics off?
Something in between? The students want to return to campus except those
who don’t. Same with the faculty.
There aren’t even enough on-campus
administrators, vice presidents, provosts, deans and invading crows and pigeons
to form a decent sized task force to overanalyze the situation and make
recommendations to the absentee board of trustees.
Our assignment was to find a coherent student
and ask questions about the return. Josie Krieger, a native of the town
in which she is a college junior is coherent. She played a violent sport
in high school, spent months in European war zones recently. So fear isn’t a
big part of her public emotional vocabulary. But she’s afraid. And
disappointed. Afraid of what?
She fears the behavior of her fellow
students. She fears the results of her conflicted school. And she’s
disappointed that she’s opting for on-line classes this semester because, she
says, she likes the academic interplay with other serious students in actual
classrooms.
She wants to be with people… says she retains
less from computerized classes. As a local resident, she can walk to school.
She’s grown up in its shadow. It’s natural for her.
The virus affects her in other ways. A
planned trip to Turkey gets scuttled. And one to Iraq where they have the
sense to close the school she would have attended.
“Penn State will close in-person classes within
two weeks of opening for the fall semester,” she says. She’ll be safe from the
non-distancing lineups at the in-town bars. Not 21 yet. But soon.
Doomsayers will say that as soon as the Freshmen
arrive the dorms will become a cesspool of COVID 19. They are right.
This is the viewpoint of one student. So
there is no data on where it stands in the confused and confusing population of
a college campus in which Central Park can fit with plenty of wiggle room. Nor
does it give any indication of the attitude of the barkeeps who are already
crying in their unsold beer. Or the opinions of the off campus landlords
who bond in the off campus fraternity, I Gouge- A Student.
Penn State may be waffling. Josie isn’t. She has
things more or less mapped out. But it’s one of those e-maps where you
can change the route with your finger on a touch screen, but not the
destination.
Today’s Quote: “I am not looking forward to it.” -- J.
Krieger on the upcoming fall semester.
NOTES FROM ALL OVER:
(NEWROSES PA) -- The Big Ten has canceled the
fall football season for supposedly big time college sports. Another reason for
the barkeeps to cry in their beer.
(BROOKLYN NY) -- Mama-la Kamala? Harris
can’t be all bad if her Jewish in-laws and stepchildren like her.
SEMI THRILLING PREVIEW: WestraDamus the
Non-Prophet rears his ugly head with a guide for students who cut online
classes. Monday 8/16/20
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but
you’re welcome to them. ®
Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2020
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