Is it just me..or does it seem apathy has swept over teenagers? I think may be more of a buzz going around campus if you're there taking summer classes, and considering there are people occupied with various other activities at other places during their summer that they may not be as aware. According to local news, the process of restructuring Rutgers University elimates all the separate colleges and ties them all under one umbrella. That would mean my college, Douglass college, will cease to exist and the only remnants of our campus that would seem to stay the same are the all female dorms. It's all over the prominent Jersey newspapers, but why do I feel like no one seems to care? Or perhaps it's simply me? Just two days ago, the Douglass alumnae launched a website in their campaign to save the college. If Rutgers does decide to go ahead and merge, the uniqueness (if that's a word?) of our smaller community within a greater community will be extinct. The alumnae sponsorhip who have donated time, commitment, and money to this school will not be able to do so in the same fashion as they have in the past under this new infrastructure. If plans for this re-organization does prove successful, it states that students will be called to unite the student governments of Livingston, Cook, Rutgers and Douglass, or to remain separate. Wouldn't the combination of these institutions and our self-governing systems create even more of an anonymity in an already colossal system that bases students' identity by a faceless social security number? Isn't the beauty of having these seperate entities to form a tighter community, academic environment, and social/professional network in this already gargantuan of a university that a foreigner could easily get lost in while driving around this area? Especially under the current drawn out Route 18 construction that is never ending. In addition to a student's quote, it also develops a sense of pride for someone's own campus. They claim the science and math programs to support women in this underrepresented field that was specially designated for this school wouldn't be affected. But still, what would happen to some of the programs that are designed for giving opportunities to the female population under this college? I just feel if the bullshit Rutgers bureacracy is triumphant in this ordeal, this little college, where I feel is almost like a small, personal homely college with it's delicate scenery and the friendships I've founded here will be gone forever. Ok, so maybe the delicate scenery and friendships will still be in existence, but...that atmoshphere of a small school where if you didn't know it was under a big name like Rutgers you probably wouldn't have known, and just thought it was another run of the mill small college in Anywhere, USA.
Despite maybe some run-on sentences and discrepancies in grammer in my blog, here are some of the links in the media that discuss in more detail of the current situation..if anyone freaking reads this damn blog or gives a rat's a s s. Oh yeah, and tuition was hiked 8% in several higher education state institutions in NJ, Rutgers included. That's a whole other blog where I can go off on a tangent and vent.
NJ.com/The Star-Ledger
The Home News Tribune
www.savedouglasscollege.org
P.S The Home News Tribune has several articles related to recent occurances in Rutgers. Just poke around and you'll find all of them. Or better yet, go the Rutgers University section on the side menu, and you'll find it all.
In addition, Cook College will not be affected becuase of it's science/environmental focus. There's also no mention of what would happen to Mason Gross. Would they be under the the Rutgers heading or would they form themselves to be their own academic enitity, separate from Rutgers?
30
10 years ago