During these difficult times, it's the simple things in life that enable comfort. One of those "things" for me was the smell of a fresh cup of coffee every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when I entered my 8 am Introduction to Literature class in Webb Hall. Given the hour of the day, students often filled their twelve-ounce travel mugs with "joe" in the dining hall and partook of them as we discussed the mastery of a Flannery O'Connor story or the biting jibes of Wilfred Owen directed at armchair patriots. Undergraduate education and coffee go hand-in-hand. I, myself, became a drinker while in college; late-night reading, studying, and paper-writing necessitated a dose of caffeine to enable my presence in the classroom to be worth something.
Now, as I approach middle age, I'm limited to one cup a day. To make up for restrictions on my java intake, I vicariously drank a second, sometimes third, cup through my students' measured sips.
When we returned from Spring Break, however, the absence of the aroma of a freshly roasted blend met my nostrils rather than the presence. Indeed, my students informed me that now it's an honor-code violation to take twelve-ounces of coffee out of the dining hall; this, despite the fact that students pay a hefty sum for an on-campus meal plan.
First-year cadets are also prohibited from buying a cup downstairs in the Mill, making the rule doubly adverse for them. Whether students drink the coffee in or outside the dining hall, they have paid for it. Stipulations that require coffee be consumed on site are mean-spirited and downright stingy.
Worse again is that the University has invoked the honor code to support this new rule. Saddling our responsibility to tell the truth with such a wrong triviality belittles and supplants our faith with cynicism.
In the spirit of the Sons of Liberty who boarded tea ships in Boston Harbor over two centuries ago, (sic)
Sincerely,
Patricia J. Ferreira
Assistant Professor, English
I would like someone to tell me why, when I go down to Plumley, there are a dozen or so local Northfield teens in our weight room. There may be a legitimate reason for them being in there and using our equipment. If there is, I would like someone to tell me what that reason is.
Although the weight room is 100% better, it's a little annoying when you have to wait for machines that are being used by fellow students. That problem can't be helped, though, given the size of the student body and the size of the weight room.
It's even more annoying when you have to wait for a machine that's being used by some kid who doesn't pay money to go here and who brings his girlfriend and five of his high school buddies to watch him do five lb. dumbbell curls. Not only are they using our weight room, but they're also making it a social event and bringing their high school attitudes with them.
I'm just wondering why we pay to go here, and we have to share a gym with rude little bastards who don't pay to go here and don't care about our equipment, or the other people in the gym.
Carrie Mitchell