My question for today is not that complicated. What is the job description of class senators? I ask because I remember two weeks after school had started in the fall, I saw fliers of aspiring candidates everywhere. They were posted on the door to my dorm, on each floor in Elton and some in Mather. The intimacy that I formed with these fliers was that characterized by hope. I was hopeful that as a freshman my concerns as a citizen of this campus will be echoed by one of the faces on these fliers. I was hopeful that someone would help me understand the jargon used in the draft resolutions of the SGA. I was hopeful that I was going to find a friend in one of these faces. I was hopeful that the flaws of politics in the secular world were not going to reverberate in Trinity’s politics. But I guess I was blinded by optimism –lured into abstraction while being oblivious to reality.

Where are my class senators? What are they doing? Can they spare me some time; to walk me through the SGA jargons, to listens to the throat eruptions of concerns that have crippled my life here, to review with me the promises they made in the fall. I want to know where these people –my heroes and my reason for believing in SGA politics, are. Can someone please tell me if I had expected too much from my class senators. If I was really blinded by optimism. Save me before I lose my mind.

When I found out that Zona Mexicana was disappearing for good, I got my hopes up that I might, once again, be able to eat at the Cave. Having given up on the sandwiches where deli meat is left to sit out all day and the salad bar which is utterly plain, my recent menu has consisted of cereal, occasional visits to Mather, and Builder Bars in my room. With the prospect of a variety of food however, I felt I might be able to find something edible.

Sadly, I was mistaken. My first foray into the Post-Zona Rotating Food Bar was this past Sunday. My roommate and I both ordered omelets made to order. In an effort to “speed up” the omelet process, one employee started pouring the egg mixture into the pan and adding the ingredients (before the egg was cooked). The result of this was that excess moisture caused the omelet to turn out like soup, and they had to throw mine away before starting again. My roommate had the same problem but instead of throwing hers out, they attempted to turn the whole omelet (now resembling a frittata) over and cook the other side. After mashing it down with the spatula, the Chartwells employee produced a flat, fried egg-mix with ingredients in it. It in no way resembled an omelet. I should also point out that we waited a good thirty minutes for these omelets because the two frying pan solution is nothing short of a disaster for a dining facility meant to service several hundreds a day.

My second attempt (fool me once, shame on you… fool me twice…) was to try the pasta made-to-order…

This was much faster because there was no one in line, but because the cooking system is clearly arbitrary, the Chartwells employee added way too much sauce to my pasta and then proceeded to try to fit it into one of the plastic clam containers. The container started to melt, the overly-saucy “pasta soup” started to spill out everywhere (all over me) and her solution was to try to drain some of the sauce out over the sink and then stick the whole thing in ANOTHER clam container (it didn’t fit but created a big huge, melting plastic mess) which she handed to me. Upon placing the whole things in a plastic bag, soupy sauce continued to run out and fill up the bottom of the bag. Needless to say, the pasta was awful.

I am disappointed with the lack of training and consistency demonstrated at this new post-Zona “solution” and I find that it is reflective not of the employees, who try hard and are clearly having to adjust to a rotating food station, but of Chartwells’ incompetence, and their clear attitude that Trinity students will put up with anything. I hope that these kinks will be worked out, but in the meantime I will return to my Builder Bars and my cold cereal.

Only a few students on campus can list some of the services that SGA offers. Sometimes I wonder whose fault that is, the students or SGA representative? Every member of SGA has
some sort of interest in student government and that interest is what keeps members coming back meeting after meeting.

As member of SGA, part of our job should be creating a interest of SGA for those who lack interest. We can do this by talking to our friends about SGA, and telling our neighbors about our accomplishments. We are representatives of the student body and we should demonstrate this outside of our meeting. When was the last time any senator attended an event on campus just to show their support? This is not a criticism of any one individual, but simply a valid observation.

Most of us remain in our circle of “SGA interest.” If we don’t step outside of this and
engage the student body in the things that they care about, attend the events they are sponsoring, how do we expect them to care about SGA? Change comes from within and if we want people from outside to care, we must care about them first.

Let me preface this post by saying that I love Trinity. I really do. I’m proud to be involved in various scopes of campus life here. But I can’t figure out why I love Trinity. I really feel like I shouldn’t. I know that a lot of people are going to tell me that if I feel this way, I should transfer. And maybe they’re right. But maybe I just feel like Trinity has so much potential for greatness that I would rather attempt to contribute to its betterment than close my eyes, run away, and leave it in my dust.

First of all, what is this social scene? What kind of institution has such homogenous social activites. Partying. Drinking and going to the Frats. That’s “going out” on a Saturday night (and Friday, and Thursday, and Wednesday….) at Trinity. I am by no means saying that partying is bad, but why is it that it’s the only organized nightlife here. Vassar College has the Mug–a college run nightclub with DJs, dancing, food, poetry, and alcohol–but the alcohol is not central to the existance. Anyone can go to the Mug. Not just attractive girls and guys who bring attractive girls. I’ve spoken to Professors and other students about this, and one Prof even told me that when his female freshman students come to him and tell him that they were not let into a frat because they weren’t “cute enough” that he wants to “nuke” the frats. It’s true. If the fraternies are going to dominate the social culture, they should be open to everyone. I was talking to another student about this, and he told me that at another school (can’t remember which one) the frat parties are advertised and everyone is encouraged to attend. Why isn’t it that way at Trinity?

How about in the classroom? At Trinity, it seems like it’s taboo to raise your hand and participate in class. You don’t want to be labeled as “that kid” (we all know them, and we all hate them. But why???). My first day in a college class–last semester in Cognitive Psychology with Professor Haberlandt, I sat down in the front row (I can see better and I pay more attention in the front) and when the Professor asked questions, the room was silent. I figured no one knew the answer, but I remembered from my AP Psychology class so I raised my hand and answered. It seemed perfectly normal to me. It wasn’t until later that night when I met a Junior on my floor and found out that she was in my class that she made a remark about how I was the annoying girl answering all the questions. I learned my lesson very shortly. At Trinity, you don’t participate in class. I still answer questions every now and then but I certainly try to refrain myself from standing out as answering lots of questions. This same Junior friend (who has since become a very close friend of mine) told me today that her Linguistics Professor was wondering about this social taboo, and remarked that she notices a big difference between eager Freshman who have not learned to blend in and upperclassmen who have learned this unspoken rule at Trinity.

I got to thinking, though, after my friend spoke about that change that occurs with Freshman, and I realized that I, too, have changed. I remember, in particular, my orientation leaders talking about “campus climate” and presenting us with a list of simple, common-sense things like “do you say hello to people you don’t know when you pass them on the long walk?” and “do you hold doors for people behind you when you walk into a building?”. It was such an obvious answer. Of course! I say hello to everyone! That’s how you meet people! But I just realized that I’ve stopped doing that–probably because people seem to be so horribly offended when you try to talk to them. I image them thinking, “How dare this person speak to me??” when I get dirty looks. It’s little things like that I don’t understand.

This post is already much longer than it should be, so I’ll just end it here. Any thoughts anyone? Am I the only one who thinks that these are problems?

-Andrea

By these standards, today’s been a pretty solid day. And the next few months promise to bring more of my favorite things (after all, the east coast has to get sunny again SOMETIME, right?).

Still, one of my biggest peeves is about to resurface, unless our generation does something about it. In every election, people accuse the youth of America of apathy. And it’s not just the youth of America that people complain about. The worst part is that they’re not completely off-base either. The last Federal Election that included a Presidential election (2004) had a voter turnout of 55.3% for all Americans eligible to vote. In 1960, also a Presidential election year, voter turnout was 63.1%. Do we care less today? Does America take our democratic right to vote for granted? Maybe.

But I refuse to believe that our generation does not care who the next leader of our country is. I do, however, believe that we all get busy and forget to show that we care. What I’m asking for is really very simple. Register to vote and then vote. Voice your opinions, because I know you all have one. I don’t care whom you vote for (though, hypothetically, I would have a few concerns about the whole separation of Church and State if one of the nominees were, hypothetically, a Baptist minister – all hypothetical of course, the United States would never stand for that, even if this hypothetical candidate played a pretty sweet guitar chord or two).

My opinion? I think Barack Obama is the man with the right plan (and basically the man in general) and that Huckabee is the one of biggest violations of Church and State in our country’s history (though I do admire his guitar skills and if Stephen Colbert were his running mate as Huckabee has promised, I’d have a hard time saying no to such a dynamic duo of comedy and song). Now go voice your opinions. Fill out that absentee ballot or go to that polling booth, and exercise your right with pride.

Text books are too expensive! No matter what PIRGs or politicians claim they’re going to do about it, textbook prices are undeniably overpriced and on-the-rise. I know that many of you do not pay out of pocket for your books, nor do you pass tangible notes to pay for them. But every semester, I go to the bookstore dreading the final tally as the cashier rings me out. My hands even shudder, occasionally, as I try to nonchalantly fan out my pay check and extend my arm to trade-in SEVERAL hours of hard work.

I swear it wouldn’t hurt as bad if I didn’t know that there must be more cost-effective ways to round-up textbooks. Why is it that students, and teachers, are in denial about the handle these publishing houses and book chains have on us? Should your/my Economics textbook really cost $160? Time-and-again I have attempted to shame my professors into finding more equitable publications. Often, they explain that the reason we cannot use last semester’s text (ones the bookstore would at least have cheaper used copies of) is that the publishing house closed-out one edition and released a “more up-to-date” edition. How much can really change from one year to the next when it comes to Algebra!? Has the primary number system changed, or something? Does E no longer equal mc2?

One semester, during my quest for an alternative to the robber baron’s option, I tried using a completely different text from the requirement for my Political Science 101 course. Basically, the only differences were the cover – mine had a photo of Elvis shaking Nixon’s hand the day he got a revolver through security and into the White House – and chapters four and five were inverted (while ten didn’t really exist). Minor set-back, major savings! Had I bought the required text, I would have paid around 75 bucks worth of groceries.

Another time I tried the online text book fiasco. Somehow I managed an A+ (thank you) even though I could never flip back the damn page where the answer was! I tried printing the chapters, thinking that would assist my dilemma, but all I ended up with was a lot of kindling for the fireplace I don’t have since the chapters were promptly shuffled when my 9-year-old brother visited. I even think I lost half a point on my last eye exam due to squinting at the screen for hours on-end. This tactic was still more equitable than buying the textbook because Sociology is another subject that publishers feel entitled to switching fonts and lay-outs of for the annual “updated” edition. My six-month subscription cost roughly half that of the textbook – to quote Borat, “verrry nice”.

So, on another note, I don’t know if you ever made a New Year’s resolution to get an old friend of yours’ to enroll in college four years after graduating high school, but I did. And that meant compromising by taking a silly Digital Photography course and sharing textbooks. We decided sharing was necessary 1) because we planned on studying together, and 2) because two texts were required totaling about $178 (on top of a new manual digital camera and PhotoShop CS2). Then, the rent was due! I ended up borrowing the books from different libraries which actually worked-out. I had custody of them most of the time and we never had to go to counseling to decide who got the weekends. A little advise, though – don’t share texts. Oh, and remember to renew.

Since I am still writing a blog article I’ll close with a call-to-action. Let’s use this new forum to advertise our used texts for fellow students to purchase. We should also post our textbook needs here. While the money-saving options I mentioned may work for some of you, some of the time, circumstances usually don’t offer such leniency. Let’s assist our fellow students, make an extra buck for ourselves, and teach the publishing houses a lesson via the bookstore’s register.

Sooo, allow me tell you what I’ve got and what I need:

Needed:

An Introduction to Language and Linguistics by Fasold and Connor-Linton

Economics; 17^th Edition by McConnell

Using + Understanding Math; 3^rd Edition by Bennett

Selling:

The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Freedman

Photo Courtesy of www.familycourtchronicles.com