The Ladies’ Home Gadfly “To persuade and reproach” - Socrates, The Apology
Vol. IX, Iss. III October 7, 2008
The Girl Power Snowball Effect Guys, let's face it. We're in the minority. If you are a new guy at Franciscan, my word to you is that you're just going to have to learn to cope with the many stresses involved in being part of the minority gender on campus. Living in the midst of a foreign culture takes perseverance – no less one as incomprehensible to us as the world of women. I know – it's hard. That's why the counseling center is available. In fact, even reading this article may have some cathartic value for you. Just take a look at the Communion line at Mass. For every one guy on the line, there are at least three more girls! How can this be? I've given it much thought, and I've concluded that there are a number of possible factors involved in this statistic. I'm sure you will agree with me that we absolutely must get to the bottom of this issue.
Well, there is a theory that girls in general outnumber guys on this campus. Some people have a hard time believing that – particularly the folks back home. Whenever I tell people back there that I go to a school called “Franciscan University,” they feel sorry for me and say I should have gone to a co-ed school instead of a place where all your classmates are priests and seminarians. When I tell them that we guys are actually in the minority, they don't know quite what to say! Actually, according to the University website, the guy / girl ratio in the residence halls on campus is as wide as 2 to 3. Oh, but you insist on arguing against the reliability of this statistic! You don't believe this really represents FUS student body. Maybe the ratio is just because the girls took control of Tommy More and its high tech elevator
service, you say. Maybe it's just because Marian has a couple more beds than Trinity. Maybe it's because Elizabeth is bigger than Louis or Clare larger than Kolbe. You're starting to see a trend and say that it is most unfair that there are so many more opportunities for girls to get rooms on campus than guys. Further, you point out that this 2 to 3 statistic takes no account of students who live off campus – that perhaps all the rest of the guys are the ones braving the dangers to life and limb which exist outside the watchful eye of campus security. Actually – and I'm sorry to break it to you – this 2 to 3 ratio is probably not very far from the truth in representing our student body. According to USA Today, the national male / female ratio for college campuses is 43 / 57. That would make the gap at FUS (Continued on page 6)
Want to be a good spouse? Be a good roommate first! As readers of the Ladies’ Home Gadfly and Franciscan University students, I imagine that many of you are interested in developing the skills necessary to be a good housewife or Mr. Mom. Surprisingly, college life is ideal for cultivating many of the attributes desirable in a spouse. This is particularly true when one examines the structure of dormitory life. In a typical dorm, a small amount of space is shared between two people who have never lived together and may or may not know one another all that well. This is just like being newlyweds! All of a sudden, you go from having a room of your own, parents who make you food (and possibly do everything else for you) to sharing a room with another person, and being responsible for your own food, your own laundry, and your own cleaning… it can be overwhelming! And what’s
more, you are living with another person who has also just become responsible for herself. But never fear – I am now going to offer you a list of suggestions for how to be a good roommate, and ultimately a good spouse. 1. Affirm. A lot. That’s right, your roommate will have hard days, and the best response to that sort of thing is, believe it or not, not to be annoyed with your roommate for his unhappiness. Rather, it is better to be supportive of your roommate and patient when he has bad days and needs to vent. 2. Be helpful with chores. Are there a ton of dishes to be done? Do them. Maybe even (gasp) do your roommate’s dishes if she is having a tough day/just got back a bad grade/was just demolished in flag football. Incidentally, even if you consider yourself the harder working roommate, you should do your fair share of
cleaning. So what if you have a paper due this week? Your roommate probably has homework of her own to do. This, of course, all ties in to… 3. General consideration. Although you may be a huge fan of techno-homework-dance parties, your hippie roommate from the West Coast may not be. This doesn’t mean you need to listen to Dar Williams and burn incense all the time (especially since incense is against dorm policy), but it may mean investing in some headphones. Ultimately, all these guidelines could be summed up in one general code – the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, or, in layman’s terms: put the needs of others ahead of your own. Be patient through the all-nighters, smelly (Continued on page 6)