quote:Well, I just spent too long typing out a response to this and after re-reading it I have to say I can get preachy real fast. I'll answer in depth in PM if you want, but my condensed responses are:
Elitism: This is a good discussion and intelligent folks can disagree, as you and I do here.
Honestly, your response reinforces my contention (at least to me). You seem to be ascribing a monolithic attitude (which you believe to be undesirable) to an entire group of people and schools, i.e. East coast elite universities. How is THAT not "elitism"? You clearly feel we are, at least in some sense, "better" than they are, and isn't that the very crux of elitism?
I've heard this sort of comment about A&M a lot. The "blue collar" and "callused hands" stuff. For one, us becoming academically elite and as a result getting a bit smaller (from gargantuan to merely huge) has nothing to do with the attitudes you mention. Secondly, I've got some experience with those schools and if anything have found at least as much of an egalitarian attitude as I do amongst Aggies.
1. You have a point that I'm probably being too unilateral in my assessment but I stand by the statement from at least my personal experience. Being an Aggie doesn't necessarily mean you're a good person, or that we have a monopoly on that kind of person, but my experiences in the NE have taught me two things: the people are friendlier than we stereotype them to be and there are some real failures of humanity that are endemic in the population of the workforce there. Not that geography makes us immune to that, but my time in New York, our great cosmopolitan center, has proved to me that egalitarianism doesn't exist across the breadth of the workforce - and I mean within the same companies even - and can in part be traced back to if you "went to the right school." On the flip side I've got a friend from New Braunfels who went to Harvard and she's the furthest thing in the world from elitist. My take away is that it's more to do with your upbringing than your place of matriculation, but those aren't necessarily discrete variables.
References: My company is NY based, was there a week ago. I've got a close friend that works for Goldman, two more at JP Morgan and one cousin there.
2. RE: "Blue Collar" and "Callouses"
I think I've muddied my lingo here, referencing two different concepts: elitism and 'the other education'.
No doubt the 'blue collar' line is a common refrain. I believe the usual parlance is that "the university needs to still be open to the rural communities," essentially implying that the historic makeup of the student body should not be reoriented to target more metropolitan communities at the expense to of the rural. An emotional hot topic no doubt but I'm not necessarily concerned about the egalitarianism of the school admittance office. This comparison back to 'white collar' was meant more in reference to the occasional ivory tower attitude you'll encounter from our esteemed colleagues around the state. If anyone here has never been told "you went to an ag school," congratulations, I hope you never are.
As for the callouses bit... I have a personal philosophy that there's a real reward in physical labor, the kind that wears you down to your breaking point and you have to confront yourself and self determine if you are going to push on. I'm at a loss for the right word, but "humbling" or "introspection" is maybe the closest I can term it right now.
I cannot tell you how many hot, disgustingly humid days I spent with others carrying logs or how many freezing nights I spent with a cold steel Y-stick in my hands...and today I can still feel the sharp lasting sting of shower water hitting my hands which were more open blisters than skin. I couldn't add up all the hours I spent doing that in place of reading a textbook. I worked for and have two degrees in Finance from Mays but I can point to that time and without a doubt know that it had a greater effect on me and my career than the time I spent in class, as odd as that sounds. I don't think I'm uncommon in that type of response either.
I fully support elevating A&M's academic profile, but I can't see a plan with the goal to become a Top 5 public school giving much reverence to the "extracurriculars" that our alumni base holds in regard... a person's time is zero-sum after all...just ask a BQ how much time he has on a weekend in the fall. It's that basic constriction on time that raises my concern when there's talk of pushing to be a national leader in academics - not that it's a bad goal or that we should not strive sir excellence, but that type of directive changes the entire complexion of how students appropriate time.
To me a better strategy is to balance academic achievement and the cultural institutions to shape an educational policy that equally weights both and promotes student retention and in-the-round education.
Before we digress too much further with this conversation it's worth noting that the thread discussion is about A&M enrollment and how to manage it going forward. There's a couple folks on this thread who could probably outline a few scenarios and move discussion on a productive course in a debate of the merits of each.
