Tommy hits it

Generally I don't find much in the Hullabaloo that I agree with but this week was different. I've known Tommy since we were both freshmen on the same hall in the Wall residential college and I've got a lot of respect for his opinion, though I certainly don't always agree. He is one of the least weird locals I've met and I'm pleased he is now in charge of the campus paper.

I'm glad to see someone speaking out against the ridiculous hype machine that is Tulane University. It seems to me colleges have become far too obsessed with there PR and selling themselves to potential customers AKA high school seniors. Tommy sights highlighting only good news as the reason Tulane would again 'forget' the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, one of the most cataclysmic events of the city and country in modern times.



He makes a good point that while 'they' (read:the school administrators) won't commemorate the disaster, they will eagerly pay lip service to the campus' community service efforts. While 'community service' is a noble cause, I personally feel the term has begun an overused buzz word that gets tossed around for the purpose of self-promotion, by both prospective students and universities trying to attract them. This is partially to blame for the undue stress put upon high-school students to boost their 'resumes' and appear like a super citizen so they can apply to 'quality' universities. Thus beguns a stupid back and forth between student and school with each one unintentionally whoring themselves out to the other via waste of paper in the mail:


Student letter: "Here's my community service record and a picture of me holdings hands with an elderly person and saving a sick puppy from a tornado. Did I mention I also LOVE to play Mozart on my cello?"

University brochure: "Look at our photoshopped campus with its neon green grass quads. Here is a bench under a shady tree where a group of students consisting of a black guy, an asian dude, a cute sorority girl just happened to be engaged in a rousing conversation, you can tell by the way they're smiling. Did we tell you about the new food court we installed in the UC? Who doesn't like a taco bell with a salad bar?"
So the two finally meet and after orientation the romance inevitably ends. The student quits the charade of helping for the sake of his fellow citizens and focuses on drinking and chasing tail, while the administration quickly forgets about them in the sea of already ensnared students and sets its sights on the fresh new blood it can attract to its web.

So universities, like Tulane, reveal there true intentions as a buisness rather than an school, when they do things like promote themselves on paper but fail to commemorate Hurricane Katrina, an event that still continues to impact the lives of its students and civic neighbors daily.