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Football first mentality means flourishing future |
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Tuesday, 16 September 2008 |
Editor’s Note: The following commentary is a satirical piece. This is the writer’s opinion and not that of The Appalachian.
I guess it’s not all that surprising some students can’t find anything better to do than complain about parking.
On Sept. 9 The Appalachian ran an editorial about “its disappointment with the parking available to students” at football games.
The editorial
discussed the dwindling amount of parking allotted for students, and
how “the focus has shifted off of student fans.”
But The Appalachian doesn’t suggest any reason the people picking parking spots should prefer students to alumni.
The editorialists only suggest Appalachian should be for students “first and foremost.”
Where do they get the idea that a university should be for students?
This isn’t Ancient Greece.
This is America.
In America, universities are places for people that already have
degrees and/or ungodly amounts of money to congregate on weekends and
purchase school-colored merchandise.
I will admit, technically the university is required to occasionally
grant new degrees, but in reality, a university’s athletic image is
always more important than its students or their welfare.
Just look at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
UNC-CH is one of the most prestigious public schools in the United States.
It’s fair to say that around 99 percent of the people at Appalachian would rather be at Chapel Hill.
Most of the student body came to Boone because they would have liked to
be at a large university with little-to-no name and face recognition
between professors and students and an unapproachable administration,
but didn’t have last names appealing enough to the admissions board in
Chapel Hill.
If we continue to let students have parking spaces and allowing them
admission to sporting events, we will never be as snooty as UNC.
What the administration should do is fast-track the abandonment of student concerns.
If we are serious about the future of Appalachian as a real American
college, the only students at football games should be the athletes.
Even then, athletes only need to barely be students.
UNC really keeps its eye on the prize.
With all of those championships, a résumé with “Chapel Hill” at the top doesn’t even need to include work experience or GPA.
The fact that you might have been on campus when Corey Lynch sealed the
Michigan upset would be enough to get fresh graduates whatever job they
may desire.
The bottom line is students need to stop complaining and stay out of The Rock.
We are ruining are own image and chances at joining the kind of elite
circles that would allow us access to Stadium parking spaces later on
in life.
Liles Neal, a sophomore political science major from Concord, is an intern graphic designer.
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