Monday, July 16, 2007

Where Fun Goes To Die

The above has been the unofficial motto of the University of Chicago, one proudly embraced by its students. We at Snap Judgment have always been amused by this conceit and think it captures a certain essence of that particular university, together with the fact that a quarter of its student body majors in economics. Chicago graduates can be annoying, though, in their assumptions about how unique their college experience (so unique that the university is relatively unselective when it comes to students). And Rick Perlstein's essay, What's A Matter with College, shows why. For of course, all of M. Perlstein's examples of how college has changed come from his alma mater, the very same place where fun has been dying since 1890. Admittedly, this a provocation for an essay contest, so M. Perlstein's piece is essentially an essay question. But we still marvel that claims about the decline of the university, whether rightist (perfidious dens of decadent ideologues) or leftist (satanic mills of global transnationalism) take private liberal arts colleges as their exemplars, when most Americans go to good ol' U of State or State U. Perlstein's piece is a more liberal lament than those, one which SJ on certain days sympathizes with, but we believe that the change in the student experience does not have much to do with U of C or any U. for that matter.

In any case, we suspect the reason for such essays, M. Perlstein's included, has something to do with the fact that going to a small private college is something like volunteering for a cult; the main difference is that you can't go to private college indefinitely. When you visit as a graduate, the cult you are visiting is no longer the one you joined. What you are mourning--if you are mourning--is your own decline. Those Bright College Days aren't past for the college, but they are past for you.

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