I would like to think my perspective at this university is a unique one – sometimes I get to be an average senior, eating lunch in the Baltimore Room or tie-dying T-shirts at Art Attack or skipping classes after pulling an all-nighter.
But other times, I get to do things and meet people who are pretty much mythical to the average student. Not to brag or anything, but as The Diamondback’s Statehouse reporter, I have routine conversations with people such as university President Dan Mote and system Chancellor Brit Kirwan. I flash a badge to get into state government buildings, and it has my picture on it.
But, if you can sense the hint of sarcasm, the funny thing is, to the average student, that’s not the most enviable position, and I realize that. At least, I fear it.
I write three or four articles every week and, believe it or not, I find what I write about interesting. But if my friends are representative of the average student, then I surely am not.
Sure, people find it interesting when I tell them I work at The Diamondback, and plenty of my friends care enough to stroke my ego by telling me they saw my name on the front page. But when I ask if they enjoyed the article’s contents or, better yet, learned anything from it, the answers are far less pleasing.
A typical response would be, “Yeah, I always look for your name, but your articles are about the boring stuff. I just do the Sudoku.”
Forget my personal beef with these “friends” of mine (you know who you are). Jokes aside, it doesn’t bother me if people don’t read my coverage. But what does bother me is that I don’t know if they’re getting informed anywhere else instead.
What I fear is when the average senior reads this column and I say they have just been through four of the most volatile up-and-down years for higher education in this state’s history, they will have no idea what I’m talking about. But it’s the truth.
Three years ago, in my freshman year, the university was established as the strong state public institution of higher education it has become. Athletically, the Terrapin men’s basketball team was just coming off a national championship. Academically, the number of ranked programs was still rising and the university had just broken into the list of the nation’s top 20 public universities.
But in the same school year, the dot-com bust and a slowing economy left the state’s budget deep in the red, and the University System of Maryland’s budget was the easy answer to the problem. It was disproportionately cut, leading to changes we all remember: larger class sizes, staff layoffs, shorter convenience store hours and even cheaper plain white cups in the dining halls. And we can’t forget tuition increases.
But this year, that seems almost a distant memory. The General Assembly is about to finalize what will be the largest budget increase for higher education in the state’s history, and a tuition freeze that follows a 50 percent increase over three years. We’re back where we were, maybe a little better off, and following administrators’ goals to keep moving up.
And the coming months hold more drama, with elections statewide having an impact on every political process that’s happening. But it takes a lot to get students to care about that, or learn anything about it.
College students so easily forget what it means to desire to learn, and I’m no exception. I know I have in countless classes. But thankfully, my time in Annapolis has kept me from being complacent toward the news going on around me.
Don’t discount how much of a stake you have in what happens in Annapolis, or even in Washington. I know for sure there are many student leaders who don’t and, unlike my average friends, have plenty to discuss with me about my articles or anything else happening outside of the world of their floor or apartment.
It sounds dumb, but I have one piece of advice for you – a do-able first step. It’s a little refrain I like to share with fellow students when they tell me they don’t like reading what I write – in fact, one friend recommended I put it on my business card one day. And in the most humble way possible, I have to say, it’s the truth.
Read my articles; they’ll make you smarter.
Scott Dance is The Diamondback’s Statehouse reporter. He can be reached at dancedbk@gmail.com.
