To Be Young, Gifted, Black, and a Jazz Enthusiast: Apparent Needle in a Haystack

Our Campus Life

Anthony Harris

Opinions News Section Editor

anthonydeanharris@gmail.com

I wasn’t feeling particularly ethereal this past week. I really just focused on making it to payday and getting a Chaucer test completed. Friday night, my roommate and I headed over to Georgia Tech’s student center to play pool and get in some bowling. My family came by to visit that following Sunday and I explained to them that if you want to have fun, you have it elsewhere.

You can see it every week. Legions of people scattering away on Fridays to head home. Dozens heading in their cars to head to various clubs and house parties. Stories heard the following Monday about the craziness that happened at parties at Tech, Georgia State, and Emory. The tamest things stories of better pool tables and bowling alleys at Georgia Tech’s student center.

The statement that I’m making here isn’t another rant against Morehouse; this is a rant against the entire AUC. Just as we need proper leadership to make sure that curriculum is even for a liberal arts education, we need to also make sure that the students are supported in all their endeavors. We can be more assured that the students are safe and more productive if they stay on the campus. If they are to stay on campus, they need a reason.

While the AUC may not have the everlasting resources of Emory or Georgia Tech, they still have the capacity to make campus life better. Opening up one small coffee shop in a parking deck should not be the life preserver of campus activity in the AUC. Devoting more attention to the resources we already have is already a great stride toward making campus life here at Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark Atlanta better.

Where are the people tossing a Frisbee or playing hacky sack? Why do I see people traversing distances to kick a soccer ball around if we already have grass? In an all male institution, why are people leaving to toss a football around?

True, the campus is making occasional strides to improve campus life like renovating the weight room, but this was at the cost of the decrepit bowling alley that could have been used if it had been repaired. Why are the pool tables in Lower Manley in even worse shape than the pool tables in Archer (which isn’t really saying much there)? Morehouse’s Hump Wednesday’s, CAU’s Market Thursday’s, and Spelman’s Market Friday’s are meager strides in making campus life fresh again, but that only ensures that students are on campus in the afternoon, and who really complains about the lack of campus life on a Wednesday afternoon?

In a group of institutions that are all very distinct and diverse, there can be much done to make sure that the students have a rich life on campus. With winter arriving, these three schools need to corroborate to make sure that the students of the AUC can find some way to not bore themselves. Now is the time for movie nights, talent shows, and an endless number of spoken word events.

These are only to make due until Archer and Read are renovated completely to accommodate to students needs, or at least the desires of people who pay $25,000 a year. We can start by selling more waffles out of the Cornelius Student Center or selling mix CD’s of the various DJ’s on all three campuses.

There are things that can be done here to make our college experience worthwhile. There are things that can be done here to make me retract my statement that you have to leave the AUC to enjoy yourself. There are things that can be done here to leave people with something to do when the club scene gets tired out and when there’s nothing to do when you’re bundled in your room when winter rears its miserable head.

We paid $25,000; there had better be things to do.