Over the past four months, I have observed Michael Moffo and the rest of the Boston University Student Union through somewhat privileged eyes — the eyes of a reporter. I have seen the energy and effort that goes into making student government work, and as was so vividly illustrated this week, the cost of that hard work to the students’ academic lives. These leaders spend countless hours working outside the classroom on projects that will receive no grade and that don’t show up on transcripts.
Why do students put so much time into leading the student body government if they are getting so little physical evidence for their work?
Many argue that the reason we are here in college is to go to class, study notes and do well on finals. We pay $36,000 to live and take classes at BU and everyone — parents, professors, administrators — expects us to focus on our class work and do well in school.
But maybe there’s more to college than meets the eye. Are we really just supposed to go to class and do well on our tests and papers? Thirty-six thousand dollars is a pretty steep price to pay for simply going to class and doing well. Built into each of our schedules is 10-20 hours of classroom time per week. That’s approximately $75 per hour of class! Exorbitant, if you ask me.
So, there must be more, and our student leaders perfectly understand the idea that there really is more to college.
Union members spend numerous hours each week planning student events, discussing University policies and making BU student voices heard by administrators. These BU students will be well equipped to run families, companies or even countries because of the lessons they are learning, perhaps at the price of some extra time that could have been spent on schoolwork.
The same holds true for countless other activities at BU. From the Community Service Center to Greek organizations, students at BU are getting their money’s worth in college by doing more than just going to class. They are learning lessons that can’t be learned in a lecture and can’t be tested in writing. Those lessons don’t come in a laboratory beaker. Those lessons will come from the people they meet and the activities they decide to do, whether in leadership, social action, sports, religion or the arts.
I do not argue that classroom learning is without value. Students learn essential lessons about how our world works and how it should be run. And most importantly, the classroom is what brings us together as students in an academic environment.
However, our college experience cannot be limited to academia during our four short years. Without more than classroom learning, a person’s college years do not reach their full potential. The real lessons are in the activities we do outside the classroom — what we decide to do with the other 150 hours of the week. Ask anyone who has finished college where that person gained his or her fondest memories and most valuable lessons. I guarantee most will tell you it wasn’t in the classroom, but outside.
Take a moment to think back to your four years of high school.
What did you learn? How much do you really remember from that required class you took freshman year? How about your favorite class senior year? And junior year — it was stressful, but do you remember the equations or historical dates you memorized for that big final? I don’t remember much, and I graduated from high school eight months ago.
The real high school lessons I remember and take with me into every activity and situation were learned in my interactions with friends and in my experiences as a leader. Those lessons are the invaluable ones; that was my real high school education.
High school experiences have taught me how to work with people, how to be a leader and how to squeeze as much passion into a goal as possible. After spending countless hours working on the newspaper last year, I can say I know what it is like to deal with the pressure of a deadline and the task of motivating a staff of writers. After experiences as a leader of my high school marching band, I can say I helped guide 200 other students to learning, perfecting and performing a piece of music played while marching an intricate design in front of audiences of hundreds of parents and fans.
Ask me what I remember from my biology class junior year, and my only response is, “No comment.”
I expect the same from college. While I will continue to go to class and try to do my best, I will also put my time and passion into activities outside the classroom. It’s not worth my time or money to do any less.
Here at BU, we all come from different places and have different life perspectives, but one thing remains constant about our college years: The most valuable lessons we will learn are those for which there is not a written test or set of books.
Use your college years to write your own tests and books.
[ Joshua Karlin-Resnick, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, is an Assistant News Editor for the Daily Free Press. ]
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
