The Lost 150

I seem to have forgotten to post up my last article which I wrote a week ago. Sorry about that.

For some reason, this article won't publish. Clearly I didn't only print one paragraph in the paper this week. Hopefully you'll bear with me and read my other work. Sorry I haven't figured out a way to fix this glitch.

The Lost 150
Anthony Harris
Opinions Editor
anthonydeanharris@gmail.com

If you didn’t know by now, the campus is undergoing budget cuts across departments. We have these budget cuts because around 150 students did not return this semester. As various departments try to cope with getting by on less resources (some departments are more used to this than others are), I’m not exactly certain how many of us are distraught about this alarming figure.

One hundred fifty students did not return this semester for reasons I could guess rather easily. Many of them probably did not have enough funds to return this semester. Some others did not see themselves fitting in this environment, not that they didn’t have the potential to become Morehouse Men, but they may have not felt happy here. Morehouse may have not been their home. Of course, there also had to have been some who simply didn’t have the grades to stay here.

Yet, there are still deeper issues worth exploring. If students ran out of funds, why did they not search more diligently for more funds? If students did not find this place to be their home, what more could we have done to be more hospitable? If students failed out, why did they not feel it was worth it to do the work that is necessary to obtain an education or why did they not ask for help?

When you get right down to it, 150 students are not here this semester because at some point in their decision making process, as it pertained to Morehouse, 150 students responded to their plight here with a rather weak “meh.” One hundred fifty students did not feel the dissatisfaction here was worth their money, time, emotion, or effort.

What more could we have done? What more are we trying to do to make sure that this Morehouse is a Morehouse worth the fight? When upholding the antiquated figure of the Morehouse Man of the 1950’s takes precedence the actual enrichment of each man who enters these gates, it serves as a deterrent to the students.

Do we need more advertising for our tutoring programs? Do we need to serious reanalyze campus life? Do we need to ensure that every student here has Sallie Mae student loans as 1 on his speed dial and Bank of America as 2? In the loss of these students, we have to ask these questions across the board. It is the perpetual goal of this institution to make it the best liberal arts college in the nation, but this loss should add gravity to this goal

Losing these 150 students should reawaken us to the flaws of the college and light a fire in our bellies. We should be motivated to teach and learn from one another like never before. We should be willing to listen and not just wait to talk, and Tarantino once wrote. We should look out for one another when fellow Men of Morehouse are suffering from financial woes or the deepest of depressions.

We have suffered great losses in this past semester. One hundred fifty students were here in the fall and just didn’t make it back for the spring. One hundred fifty students have embarked on a new journey. Each decided to educate himself where it is cheaper, more hospitable or more attractive in another way. They have gone off to conquer new academic peaks and see new battles in life that were not on their paths before. These 150 men are warriors who should give us new perspective.

When we think of the men who have departed from us (whether on this plane or the next, God rest those no longer with us this semester), we must think of the reasons for their loss. We must learn from those before us and ensure that we continually grow to be a better school.

Some around here who revel in their stagnation, keeping this school from entering the 21st Century, may believe these hopes of improvement to be irrelevant, outside their job descriptions, or not worth their effort. I think it’s time we all reanalyzed what it means to be part of Morehouse College. I think it’s time we think about how we can each make this a better place. We owe it to the 150 who have left us.