Listen, I really don’t want to make yet another pessimistic column. But recently, this school has done nothing but depress me.
I was ranting at The Stute office a while back, and someone said to me: “You don’t regret coming here, do you?” I am torn here. I was happy when I first came to Stevens. I was excited, I had friends, I had hopes and dreams with the Co-op Program and possibly a Master’s and all of that jazz. I was a freshman.
But now, I am not. My Co-op Program is gone, I couldn’t handle the overloading of classes for a Master’s, and many of my friends have mostly left Stevens by some means or another. So many of the things I used to love about this school are either gone or on the way out.
Once upon a time, Pierce had these great couches that you could chill in while watching anime or playing games (yeah, I was one of the “kids in the corner” in Hart Welles’ “Stevens, My Life is You” song), but they have since removed everything but the tables and chairs. I remember in my freshmen year hanging out with people on Hayden 4th floor working on reviewing MA 115 and MA 116, the original Calculus I and Calculus II classes, but those days are totally gone now that I live outside of Stevens. My friends and I all used to have this thought that we could really make a difference at this school, and actually change the stupid things that frustrated us. Nothing changed.
So, do I “regret coming here”? I guess I do. While my experience here has been completely invaluable, with great friends and a myriad of different types of events that irrefutably changed my life, there is a good chance I would’ve met a good crowd of people at another college. So yeah, in many ways, I do regret coming here.
But what specifically upsets me about Stevens? I don’t have a good answer. The school is changing, and I have no say in it. I suppose, at the end of the day, that really upsets me. Not enough students have representation in things like the Master Plan, or Compass One, or even the landscaping. I mean, I don’t expect that at any other school I could’ve gone, so I suppose there is no reason to be upset, but even so, I wish students had more say in what’s going on around campus.
I think I am abnormally bitter about this, but I think most seniors can agree that we all spent way too much on this school, but somehow, the benefits outweigh, or will outweigh, these costs (not just the price). When you look closely at it, it makes sense. Most of us only became bitter in the last year or two, in which case we are already halfway through. That promise of a big paycheck at the end of the road is a big one, and most Stevens students are practical people.
If I could do it all over again, I probably wouldn’t have chosen Stevens. I would have tried for University of Michigan, commuted from home, and done internships in the summer. Regrettable as it may be, however, there is no point trying to think about how things could have been. The present is what I have to work with, and I intend to make the most of it. As for my current status at Stevens though, it is too late for me and my class to try to change the school to make life better somehow. Trying to address those problems will fall to the younger generations.
