Those Pampered Students, Part III
The News has a relatively good story on financial pressures faced by college students — until it attempts to explain the changed economic situation by relying primarily on the bizarrely out-of-touch perspective offered by EMU’s financial aid director Cynthia Van Pelt. “The big difference is with the students themselves. They don’t just want a cell phone; they want a cell phone that takes photos, says Van Pelt.” And today’s students are not only infatuated with the latest gadgets; they also insist on the most opulent living arrangements. “Nowadays, everybody has a single room, and they don’t understand why their bills are $800 more than anyone else’s.” The “anyone else” that’s not part of the “everybody” that has a single room, apparently.
I figure if anyone can deal with constant assault of naked farting and jerking off, s/he can feel free to be my roommate.
posted by Real Big on December 5th, 2005 at 12:00 pmIt’s pretty much impossible to find a decent phone that doesn’t have a camera in it nowadays.
posted by Frank on December 5th, 2005 at 2:39 pmIt’s also more expensive to have a land line than a cell phone in my experience. But that’s not likely to sway the “Those welfare queens have COLOR TELEVISIONS!” crowd.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on December 5th, 2005 at 2:44 pmNot sharing a bedroom but living with 5 other people in a house = luxury living indeed.
posted by Brandon on December 5th, 2005 at 3:56 pm“It’s also more expensive to have a land line than a cell phone in my experience.”
I guess I’ve never had a land line that I didn’t share with someone, and I haven’t seen a cell phone plan less than half the price of a land line. So I continue happily cell-phone-free for now….
posted by Bruce Fields on December 5th, 2005 at 5:03 pmAnd so you shall remain… until you slide 75 feet down a granite cliff, end up lodged in a tree with another 75 feet below you, and are unable to call 911. Then you’ll be sorry.
posted by Anna on December 5th, 2005 at 5:53 pmI would actually rather have a land line, but no one ever wants to share with me. I’ve only had a cell phone (that I use) for a couple months.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on December 5th, 2005 at 6:09 pmOh, and it doesn’t have a camera. But it’s just the free model.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on December 5th, 2005 at 6:14 pmMine doesn’t have a camera either. I don’t want all that gadgetry.
posted by OFWinsurgent on December 5th, 2005 at 7:19 pmevery time i have slid 75 feet down a granite cliff and ended up lodged in a tree, i have been very grateful for my land line, which i use to climb hand over hand to my rescue!
posted by peter honeyman on December 5th, 2005 at 8:49 pmI broke down and bought a cell that year the now-wife and I were in school 650 miles apart. Free long-distance was convenient.
It also came in handy that one time the car caught fire about 75 miles west of Fargo at 1am, though I was surprised to get a signal . . .
posted by Murph on December 5th, 2005 at 11:07 pm(1) Back before I had a car or a driver’s license, I heard a whole lot of those unlikely, invented emergencies like the granite cliff scenario. Apparently a cell phone is yet another indispensible silver bullet that can solve any far-fetched problem.
(2) Camera cell phones aren’t allowed in court, and lawyers are starting to complain that non-camera phones are hard to find.
(3) It is absolutely true that past generations of college students lived in less space, with drastically less privacy, less freedom, and with fewer amenities than college students today. As late as the 1970s, most students didn’t have single rooms or their own cars.
It is only to be expected that those of a certain age, who went to college in the days of barracks style student housing, and who have been out of touch with college life for decades, will be nonplussed by reports of how students live today.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on December 6th, 2005 at 3:32 amActually, Larry, the granite cliff scenario is admittedly very unlikely, but did happen. I was rescued by the local firemen after calling 911 and using my whistle (another luxury that I’m sure all spoiled students will want now) so that they could find me. Of course, that phone call could have been avoided if I hadn’t imprudently gone hiking alone.
posted by Anna on December 6th, 2005 at 7:27 amAre these people “of a certain age” also confused by the personal computing devices in most people’s home and workplace, and by the lack of U.S.S.R. on an atlas?
If I can explain to my grandmother that no one says “colored folk” anymore, then any middle-ager can be convinced of the notion that students (for the most part) no longer occupy rat’s dens.
posted by FAA on December 6th, 2005 at 9:10 amWhat I find worst about the article is that the first three-quarters are dedicated to describing how students _are_ cutting costs and trying to save money - and then quotes this person totally uncritically as saying that, oh, all students have flashy cell phones and fast cars and flashy computers, and blah blah blah.
posted by Murph on December 6th, 2005 at 10:58 amSeeing that computers are now an integral part of modern education, it’s much akin to somebody from a century ago complaining that students has paper notepads while he had to make due with slate and chalk.
posted by JCP2 on December 6th, 2005 at 11:06 amIt does need a quote from some old codger about walking 20 miles uphill to school barefoot in 8 inches of snow.
posted by Dave on December 6th, 2005 at 11:07 amcould the problem possibly be that these goddamned young whippersnappers these days want everything handed to them on a goddamned silver platter? Now get the hell off my lawn!
posted by Real Big on December 6th, 2005 at 1:17 pm(1) It’s not just that student housing is better than it was. In the last 50 years, undergrad student life has gone from monkish to mainstream. Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, but I have found lots of folks older than me who see a kind of moral dimension to this, and who think single rooms are bad for the college experience.
(2) Re: “old codger … walking 20 miles uphill to school barefoot in 8 inches of snow.”
You forgot “uphill both ways”.
But Michigan is hardly noted for its steep topography. To people from other parts of the state, Ann Arbor is unusually “hilly”.
Moreover, an old Michigan school law prohibited raising money to build the school house by taxing properties more than 1.5 miles distant. This was back in the days when Washtenaw County had about 150 school districts, most of them about four square miles; that law ensured that every schoolhouse was smack dab in the middle of the district. At least through 8th grade, it would be a very unusual kid (in Michigan 1850-1950) who had to walk more than a mile and a half to school.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on December 6th, 2005 at 3:07 pmKids were so pampered in those days.
posted by Dale on December 6th, 2005 at 3:50 pmWell, southeastern Michigan isn’t very hilly, but northern lower MI and the western UP can be.
posted by tom on December 6th, 2005 at 3:59 pmHow can college housing be that much better if schools like the U of M are using the exact same buildings they used 30 years ago? I think newspapers just like to publicize the few fancy new dorm buildings because it reaffirms their existing prejudices about those kids who have it so easy.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on December 6th, 2005 at 4:50 pmYeah, especially if enrollment is going up at UM. Ever been in one of East Quad’s “converted triples”? (i.e., built to be a double but three people living in it).
posted by Anna on December 6th, 2005 at 5:25 pmI probably could have saved a lot on housing during school by living in Robo’s room as featured in Decline of Western Civilization.
posted by Real Big on December 7th, 2005 at 1:25 amWhoever says it is not hilly around Ann Arbor has not walked on Broadway or Miller or 7th St. or Nob Hill (and the list goes on.) In elementary school I logged 2 miles a day back & forth. Slauson was just over 1 mile away. Pioneer was 3 miles to school, 2 miles to work, and 2 miles to home after work. Uphill all the way in the winter time.
At EMU most students are working their way through school. I know several who actually put in a 40 hour week outside of 3 classes per semester. Tuition rates hikes, like most universities, are much higher than the inflation rate. All the students and most of the faculty are quite incensed by the “President’s House Fiasco.” Plenty of money for that but at the computer labs (too few computers for the level of need) there is seldom a stapler or hole punch that works. Most dorms are older. The newer ones are dreary and poorly lit for study. Few classrooms have pencil sharpeners. I could go on, but that should suffice.
posted by Skyhawk on December 7th, 2005 at 10:53 pmPencil sharpeners? I don’t think most UM classrooms have those, either.
posted by Brandon on December 8th, 2005 at 1:42 amI have to think back to elementary or possibly middle school for the last time I saw a classroom with a pencil sharpener in it. Don’t most students use pens for note-taking anyway?
posted by Dave on December 8th, 2005 at 10:55 amMost students treat there loans like found money. The first day they get the disbursement check they are at mall.
Students don’t take nores anymore. They download the professor’s PowerPoint lectures.
posted by murder on December 10th, 2005 at 11:49 pmAbout the non-camera cell phones… they exist. A few companies put out models with lawyers in court etc. specifically in mind. Here are a few links…
http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=656 (Motorola V170, $50-$125 depending on activation)
http://reviews.cnet.com/Samsung_SGH-X497/4505-6454_7-31515625.html?tag=prod (Samsung SGH-X497, $50)
Hope that helps.
posted by Big John on December 11th, 2005 at 12:25 ammurder - and you apparently know from first-hand experience…
posted by Murph on December 11th, 2005 at 6:26 pm