Spring Break
Apathetic U. community mired by sleepy Philadelphia
Aaron Sakulich
Issue date: 4/16/04 Section: Ed-Op
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By random chance, I picked up a copy of The Triangle from 1995 the other day and leafed through it. In the Ed-Op section, I found a letter to the editor that basically berated the staff of The Triangle for not focusing on anything worth focusing on; the news section featured trivia from far away lands and the Ed-Op section had such interesting pieces as a 1,200-word diatribe about the then-new blue M&Ms - not that I should really be pointing the finger when it comes to pointless commentaries.
Combined with the recent decree that the entertainment section - which is undergoing more renovations than Commonwealth Hall - should have more content regarding Drexel-related events, this letter really made me look deep into my bitter, opinionated soul, and take a long, hard look at my own writings. I've written mostly about things that have absolutely no link to the immediate Drexel community or Philadelphia in general, with the exception of an article I wrote about how the co-op program betrayed me. To be fair, I wrote it while I worked for the government, an entity which has driven many a stronger person into the depths of despair. Other than that, my recent, ill-received expose on the Undergraduate Student Government Association/Office of Residential Living conspiracy is about the extent of Drexel-related activities I've written about. I sat down just now with the intent to write an article about something related to Drexel, but realize I can't. I was going to write about how the recent fraternity closings seem like a ploy to get people to move into University Crossings, but I have no data to go on. That's never stopped me before, but I also don't have any half-baked crazy ramblings to go on. I can't think of a single thing going on or a single topic of interest related to Drexel. In The Rectangle, there was supposed to have been an article about our undefeated volleyball team, which I didn't understand until someone said we didn't have one anymore. No one, much less myself, understands recent topics of scandal such as annual registration. If you say you know whether annual registration will drop us into a vat of metaphorical acid or fill our apartments with latex-clad metaphorical Norwegian lesbians, you're either the one who wrote the proposal, wrong or lying. Nothing interesting is happening at Drexel to review, and at the end of the day, I don't even care that much. That's what the problem is; people complain that there is sparse Drexel-related content in The Triangle, but at the same time, very few people care about Drexel.
When I visit my friends at Penn State, they know every single event happening on campus, along with all the sports statistics and miscellaneous folderol. It's because they have a rural campus; the school knows there's nothing to do in the surrounding city, so they really provide for people. Students know there's nothing to do in the surrounding area other than injure farm animals, so they go all-out forming groups and so on to amuse themselves. People at Drexel assume there must be something interesting to do in the city, so no one really cares at all about campus life. I once thought that being in a city was a great big plus-mark next to Drexel, but I now realize that it may be its costliest flaw. Being in a major city harms Drexel more than it helps, unless you can think of some way to construe the horrible smell and plague of guys who just need a little change on your way out, yo, as a good thing. (On a side note: Those people live better than I do. Don't give them anything.) At my orientation we were told that Drexel has over 120 student organizations. If you can name 25 of them, come on by The Triangle offices to receive a complementary Loch Ness Monster, because you don't exist. There's nothing to do in Philadelphia other than drink and go to shows. Of course, this isn't literally true, but I swear that the next person to tell me, "Hey, Philly's great; you can go get a cheese steak or hang out at the art museum," is going to be eating cheese steaks through a straw for the next few years. The Art Museum changes its exhibits monthly at the most, and cheese steaks more than once or twice a week will turn you into a contestant on the new Fox reality show "Joe Wad-of-Playdough."
Philadelphia is a city whose mayor once claimed that the city was going to do well in the future because white people aren't allowed to get positions in the government. The entire city is at the tender mercies of the unions who, to their credit, at least have the common decency to be subtle in their crooked dealings and not just hand over suitcases of cash to their incompetent brothers, as did Mayor John Street. I can't say for sure how The Real World was convinced to come back to Philly after their justified departure, but it's fairly obvious that somewhere there was a horse's head in someone's bed.
Be my unintended rhyming as it may, my original point was this: Drexel doesn't have much to do on campus because a large portion of the resident student population goes home on the weekends, and the rest are deluded into thinking there's something to do in the city. There are only three things that are good about the city: The International House, which screens first-rate foreign and independent films; there's a bar above the Ethiopian restaurant Abyssinia that has great bluegrass and jazz music on certain nights; and the Philadelphia Film Festival is superb, albeit only for two weeks a year. For those of you whose scorecards are broken, this list melts down to "drink and see shows" as I believe has been previously mentioned. I cannot fault The Triangle for its lack of coverage of Drexel or city events. As Datebook editor, it's my job to seek out these events every week, and despite this active research, I still find very little going on. Every week, filling up Datebook is a challenge. It's a more substantial challenge still if you're actually looking for something enjoyable to do.
People have said that I complain a lot, so I hate to end a complaint-filled article without suggesting a solution or at least showing I'm not just an idle whiner. The only solution to revive this stillborn campus life is for the administration and bored students to no longer have a "someone else will take care of it" attitude, and only then should people complain if there is a lack of Drexel-related content in The Triangle. Yes, we live in a large city. No, that does not mean there must be something interesting to do out there. Philadelphia is less like a city and more like a tumor that should be excised for the good of the patient. When Drexel's administration and students stop relying on this "Union Town" to provide their jollies, I'll say The Triangle should do a better job of covering local events. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to Gino's for a cheese steak.
Aaron Sakulich is a junior majoring in materials engineering.
Combined with the recent decree that the entertainment section - which is undergoing more renovations than Commonwealth Hall - should have more content regarding Drexel-related events, this letter really made me look deep into my bitter, opinionated soul, and take a long, hard look at my own writings. I've written mostly about things that have absolutely no link to the immediate Drexel community or Philadelphia in general, with the exception of an article I wrote about how the co-op program betrayed me. To be fair, I wrote it while I worked for the government, an entity which has driven many a stronger person into the depths of despair. Other than that, my recent, ill-received expose on the Undergraduate Student Government Association/Office of Residential Living conspiracy is about the extent of Drexel-related activities I've written about. I sat down just now with the intent to write an article about something related to Drexel, but realize I can't. I was going to write about how the recent fraternity closings seem like a ploy to get people to move into University Crossings, but I have no data to go on. That's never stopped me before, but I also don't have any half-baked crazy ramblings to go on. I can't think of a single thing going on or a single topic of interest related to Drexel. In The Rectangle, there was supposed to have been an article about our undefeated volleyball team, which I didn't understand until someone said we didn't have one anymore. No one, much less myself, understands recent topics of scandal such as annual registration. If you say you know whether annual registration will drop us into a vat of metaphorical acid or fill our apartments with latex-clad metaphorical Norwegian lesbians, you're either the one who wrote the proposal, wrong or lying. Nothing interesting is happening at Drexel to review, and at the end of the day, I don't even care that much. That's what the problem is; people complain that there is sparse Drexel-related content in The Triangle, but at the same time, very few people care about Drexel.
When I visit my friends at Penn State, they know every single event happening on campus, along with all the sports statistics and miscellaneous folderol. It's because they have a rural campus; the school knows there's nothing to do in the surrounding city, so they really provide for people. Students know there's nothing to do in the surrounding area other than injure farm animals, so they go all-out forming groups and so on to amuse themselves. People at Drexel assume there must be something interesting to do in the city, so no one really cares at all about campus life. I once thought that being in a city was a great big plus-mark next to Drexel, but I now realize that it may be its costliest flaw. Being in a major city harms Drexel more than it helps, unless you can think of some way to construe the horrible smell and plague of guys who just need a little change on your way out, yo, as a good thing. (On a side note: Those people live better than I do. Don't give them anything.) At my orientation we were told that Drexel has over 120 student organizations. If you can name 25 of them, come on by The Triangle offices to receive a complementary Loch Ness Monster, because you don't exist. There's nothing to do in Philadelphia other than drink and go to shows. Of course, this isn't literally true, but I swear that the next person to tell me, "Hey, Philly's great; you can go get a cheese steak or hang out at the art museum," is going to be eating cheese steaks through a straw for the next few years. The Art Museum changes its exhibits monthly at the most, and cheese steaks more than once or twice a week will turn you into a contestant on the new Fox reality show "Joe Wad-of-Playdough."
Philadelphia is a city whose mayor once claimed that the city was going to do well in the future because white people aren't allowed to get positions in the government. The entire city is at the tender mercies of the unions who, to their credit, at least have the common decency to be subtle in their crooked dealings and not just hand over suitcases of cash to their incompetent brothers, as did Mayor John Street. I can't say for sure how The Real World was convinced to come back to Philly after their justified departure, but it's fairly obvious that somewhere there was a horse's head in someone's bed.
Be my unintended rhyming as it may, my original point was this: Drexel doesn't have much to do on campus because a large portion of the resident student population goes home on the weekends, and the rest are deluded into thinking there's something to do in the city. There are only three things that are good about the city: The International House, which screens first-rate foreign and independent films; there's a bar above the Ethiopian restaurant Abyssinia that has great bluegrass and jazz music on certain nights; and the Philadelphia Film Festival is superb, albeit only for two weeks a year. For those of you whose scorecards are broken, this list melts down to "drink and see shows" as I believe has been previously mentioned. I cannot fault The Triangle for its lack of coverage of Drexel or city events. As Datebook editor, it's my job to seek out these events every week, and despite this active research, I still find very little going on. Every week, filling up Datebook is a challenge. It's a more substantial challenge still if you're actually looking for something enjoyable to do.
People have said that I complain a lot, so I hate to end a complaint-filled article without suggesting a solution or at least showing I'm not just an idle whiner. The only solution to revive this stillborn campus life is for the administration and bored students to no longer have a "someone else will take care of it" attitude, and only then should people complain if there is a lack of Drexel-related content in The Triangle. Yes, we live in a large city. No, that does not mean there must be something interesting to do out there. Philadelphia is less like a city and more like a tumor that should be excised for the good of the patient. When Drexel's administration and students stop relying on this "Union Town" to provide their jollies, I'll say The Triangle should do a better job of covering local events. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to Gino's for a cheese steak.
Aaron Sakulich is a junior majoring in materials engineering.
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