Oh, for the love of everything small and furry, people, give it a rest. Yes, all you people out there bitching about Peter Myers’ column on the School of Management (‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter SMG’s seventh circle,’ April 11, pg. 9). Yes, it was exaggerated, and yes it was completely unfair. But, guess what? It wasn’t meant to be an accurate representation of SMG.
I usually don’t like people who write into a newspaper and complain, but I felt moved for the first time in my almost five years here. Of course, you could validly argue that I’m becoming who I hate, but I will calmly ignore you and get to my point. Anyone who honestly believes that SMG is literally hell has some major issues to work out, and responding to a newspaper column should be about last on a list of 10,000. It was a satire, people. A joke. Please allow me to offer all those pissed off about it a nice refreshing glass of Lighten the Hell Up.
Everyone in this university gets characterized. SMG, COM, CAS, UNI you name it. I spent two years going through the College of General Studies, and that’s the long-term whipping boy of Boston University. You tell damn near anyone on the street that you’re in CGS, and you almost always get a crack like, ‘Oh, gosh, but I bet you Could Get Smarter! Har, get it?’ To which I usually reply with a longish pause and then say, ‘Oh, I get it, but I haven’t heard that one in (checks watch), damn, almost 20 minutes! Any more new material you got?’
The point is that a little thicker skin could do everyone wonders. Yes, SMG people work hard. Damn hard I’ve seen it. And yes, they’ll, in all likelihood, be making more money than me or anyone else in the university. But yes, they can expect a little razzing about going to school in a modern office building with a Starbucks, while the College of Arts and Sciences is secretly run by rats pocketing switchblades and holding up students for their coffee from the basement café. I’m sorry, but ‘dem’s the facts of life. College of Communication people work hard too, and they can expect razzing about not having a math requirement. I completely understand pride and righteous anger and feeling offended at unfair characterizations, but carrying on like a fifth grader about a ridiculous article that really isn’t that important is just a tad extreme.
All offended SMG people, here’s my advice: get two other SMG people together, buy a six-pack of something (beer, preferably, if you’re legal), and have a toast to SMG as the absolute best school on campus and how everyone else sucks. True or not, it’ll make you feel a lot better.
