AS I write these words, it becomes increasingly difficult to believe that this is my last column in The Cavalier Daily. I am graduating, and it is time for someone new to have the tremendous opportunity to be an Opinion columnist. This makes it only more urgent for me, as someone who will in very short time be an alumnus of this University, to share my thoughts about the direction I think the University needs to move.
First, though, I need to offer some comments about the 40-something columns I have written since September 2004. Looking back on this work, I do not agree with everything I have written. I strove for a balanced position and pragmatic tone in everything I wrote, while still attempting to take interesting stands or make useful observations about issues. The style of what I wrote counted just as much for me as the substance. I sometimes adopted positions to see if I could work out their implications in an interesting way; my viewpoint on some issues has changed; and some issues simply do not strike me as being of importance any longer. As Foucault said, "Do not ask me who I am and do not ask me to remain the same."
But there are some perspectives that I have articulated which I continue to believe are correct and important. I hope that those who read my column each week, whether on the Internet or in print, were able to glean some insight or perhaps comfort from what I wrote in this space.
I continue to believe, for example, that society often forces us to limit our thinking on important issues and adopt simple-minded positions for the sake of reputation. I do not mean to attack "political correctness" for the umpteenth time because I wish to make a broader point. Individuals often limit their thinking in important ways because they feel that they have to take the popular or accepted position on issues. There are of course many positions which are genuinely ignorant. But reasonable people can disagree on many issues, and the drive for intellectual conformity which I detect in many political movements operating today is still present and still pernicious.
There is another issue which I began to identify in my later columns, which involves the future of the image of the University and the future of student life here. As a soon-to-be alumnus, I have a vested interested in seeing that the reputation of the University remains strong. I want others to be able to enjoy the phenomenal college experience I have enjoyed at the University.
Unfortunately, I have no confidence that the current administration and the current Board of Visitors will actually take steps to maintain and improve our reputation and our student life. The Board of Visitors and the administration have been all too willing to sell out the University's academic reputation. The University has a towering reputation in Virginia and a fairly strong reputation in the eastern United States but lacks a national reputation outside of the East.
The obvious way to improve our reputation is to attract the best-quality students possible. In this space, I have suggested actions the University can take in this direction, such as increasing merit scholarships. What has the University done in the front in recent weeks? The University recently announced a program to guarantee admission to any Virginia Community College student with a 3.4 GPA or higher. I fail to see how such a program will improve our reputation, given the comparatively lax admissions policies of the community college system and the ease of community college classes compared to the University. While this program may prove politically popular among community college administrators, it sells out our long-term interest. Attracting top-quality students is essential for faculty quality and retention as well, for any professor will rate the quality of students as a top priority in choosing between universities.
Maintaining a high-quality student body is also essential for continuing the incredibly high quality of student life at the University. While the national media (e.g. The Washington Post) constantly tries to paint the University as a society divided rigidly by politics and race, the actual situation here could not be more different. We have as diverse a student body and as vibrant a social scene as anywhere in the country. The University has incredible tradition, genuine school spirit, a proud and secure self-image and a vibrant institutional culture. We need to be project a positive image of student life here to counteract the images generated by the media.
The quality of student life is threatened, however, by the ceaseless expansion which the Board of Visitors and the administration seems to be planning. More students will necessitate more dormitories, more construction, further distances to navigate to classes and elsewhere, a strain on academic resources and a less cohesive culture. We need to think seriously about the implications of this sort of continual expansion for student life at the University in the future.
Noah Peters' column appeared Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at npeters@cavalierdaily.com.
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