Sexual predators, I feel safe
Just Your Average 68-Year-Old College Freshman
The rumors of today’s college students being relentless sexual predators are categorically false. I feel safe here.
Oakton Campus descripton
Just Your Average 68-Year-Old College Freshman
The campus of our local community college sits in the next suburb over. For most of us students, it’s a short drive to the two-story, y-shaped building.
It’s a humanely engineered space that’s all glass and angles and sunlight.
It originally served as a high school with the needs of teenagers in mind. But its abundance of restrooms seemed to have anticipated us older, prostate-challenged scholars and, as a throwback to gentler times it has plenty of drinking fountains.
There are large multi-function conference rooms throughout the campus and I reserved one when my Earth-Science lab team needed a long flat surface to assemble our 5-meter (16.4 feet) geological timescale. It amazed my young partners that a lowly freshman, including them, could approach the school’s staff for special accommodations.
That may have been a lasting lesson they took away from the assignment.
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Warning to new students
Just Your Average 68-Year-Old College Freshman
“This is not high school.” is a mantra we heard often. Professors routinely warned that we’re responsible for chapters not covered during lectures.
At the beginning of the semester they would give a running countdown to the “drop date.” Up until then, students can drop a class without getting an “incomplete” slapped on their transcripts. I bailed on Philosophy of Religion—the sheer amount of work required by fifteen credit hours was more than I had expected. I didn’t get a refund on tuition. Unlike most students I don’t have to explain my drop to my dear parents, may they rest in peace.
Transients Students
Just Your Average 68-Year-Old College Freshman
My kids reported that university classrooms offer limited social interaction. My classes followed that pattern. People didn’t greet one another. There was little talk; laughter was rare. Our professors were under pressure to march through the broad curriculums of freshman survey courses.
Lab periods in Earth Science were an exception. Teams of students had the opportunity to share notes and answers. Some of the guys became comfortable enough to use my first name – it had been a courteous “sir” before that.
On the final day, we walked out of our classroom separately as we each finished our exams. Poof, we were gone! Like those hotels lined up out by the airport, community colleges are for transients.
Algebra
Just Your Average 68-Year-Old College Freshman
“Hey, algebra – bite me!”
I didn’t know it but I spent 137 hours and 27 minutes studying—ready for this?—HIGH SCHOOL math! And, my advisor told me, I need another HIGH SCHOOL math course before I actually study for-real COLLEGE math! Forgive the caps and the bangs but I am piqued by this duplicity! I’m also kind of intimidated—I applied myself but I could only come up with a lousy B in Fundamentals of Algebra? By the way, tip for fellow freshmen: algebra and wine before dinner is a good combination.
