Growing Pains:

Ignoring the present for the sake of the future

By Jimmy Thomas
Courier Staff

One of the largest frustrations current students have with MC is that they feel continually ignored and brushed aside by the College.

In the past, MC has done an excellent job of recruiting record numbers of new students, but it has also done a superb job—intentionally or not—of frustrating current students by repeatedly ignoring their needs.

What is worse is that MC gives no other reason for its ignorance than, “We are growing,” or “We have a large incoming class and we need to accommodate.” The school needs to forget about future students for a moment and worry about taking care of the ones who are already here.

Space is one of the largest problems this campus has right now—in the residence halls, the cafeteria and in rooms for campus groups to meet.

The College has ignored the needs of the students in this regard by continuing to grow each year, but not providing enough new spaces for student groups to meet and not providing enough housing for existing students.

During the Resident Assistant (RA) banquet at the beginning of the year, President Ditzler disturbed a great number of involved and respected students by continually ignoring what the students were saying about feeling like second-class citizens compared to incoming students.

Also, MC proposed making all RAs have roommates next year to accommodate the increased enrollment. Thankfully, after a massive effort by the RA staff, the College retracted this plan. These examples show MC is not considering the effects of its actions on current students. It is only interested in keeping enrollment up at any cost.

I know many students on campus, myself in particular, are annoyed by comments such as, “We are growing,” “Everyone is feeling the strain” or “The College has decided to…,” because they do not actually address the issues students have.

Yes, we are growing, but that does not mean current students must be ignored and hurt in the process. I have never met “Mr. College” who makes all these decisions for the school, but if I ever did meet that person, I would be certain to give him a piece of mind.

Someone must take responsibility for the decisions affecting the lives of current students and make a concerned effort to actually accommodate students in the way they were promised while being recruited. Perhaps that is the great myth about MC — hey make incoming students feel like prized individuals, answering every question and meeting every need until they are on campus and end up feeling ignored, overlooked and used.

MC needs to take a step back and take a look at what we need right now—housing, activities, funding, more professors, classes and departments—and take care of existing problems while at the same time keeping in mind our goal of 1,500 students.

After evaluation, we can grow again having accommodated for the present and future needs of students. Just because the College wants to meet the enrollment goal of 1,500 students does not mean it needs to do this immediately or even as soon as possible.

If a business decided to increase its client base, it would not go about this by ignoring the needs of current customers; this is bad business and will damage the credibility and respect of the institution.

I believe that MC has a lot to offer prospective students, but not if it continues to ignore current students.

MC should stop worrying about making incoming students think this is, “What college was meant to be” and actually start making it what it was meant to be for those who are already on campus.