Cabrini College: The College Without A Cause

Back in grade school, when my classmates considered sports stars like Mike Schmidt and Michael Jordan to be their role models, James Dean was my role model. I saw the film "Rebel Without A Cause" when I was in sixth grade, and I found my idol. I immediately adopted the James Dean hairstyle and his cheery demeanor.

Nine··years later, I'm still looking for a cause. I gave up on the rebel part a long time ago.

Last week's Loquitur article "Sweating It Out" was one of the strongest stories we have printed this year. It reported on the University of Penn students who staged a nine day sit-in to make their college switch its apparel brand from the Fair Labor Association, which uses sweatshops, to the Workers Rights Consortium. Their protest was successful, with the administration giving a "tentative agreement" to switch apparel lines. These students can be credited with making a positive difference in the world.

Cabrini College students have also thought about staging sit-ins before. Last year, there were rumors of a sit-in outside of the presidents office in front of the board of trustees. The hot button issue? The location of graduation.

See the difference here?

I find myself jealous of the students staging the sit-in.

They found a cause to stand up for, and wouldn't take no for an answer. Their peaceful protest could have lots of positive long-term effects, maybe even making the FLA reconsider its labor practices. These students will look back on their college careers with a sense of accomplishment; they made something great happen.

Now compare that to our college environment. What, if anything, does our college stand for? The closest things I ever hear to protests are against the housing lottery and the food in the cafeteria.

I heard a theory recently that our generation is apathetic because we have no real wars to fight. The thing is, we are still the kids in America, and as such we need something to fight against. At Cabrini, we fight against the administration and their hired hands, Public salety. When you think about it, it's pretty funny, the anger that people conjure up when talking about President ladorola. She's a little old lady who enjoys playing tennis, and we talk about her like she is the evil incarnate. Or. like our parents used to talk about Richard Nixon.

If our biggest concerns through our college careers are housing and other campus policies, then we're pretty lucky, but also very sheltered. I'm not going to defend the administration, especially on housing, because I think they screwed that up on a yearly basis and the students pay the price. But lets face it, living here isn't all that great anyway. If I don't get housing next year because I live close to the college, my life will go on. Maybe I'll find an apartment where my neighbors won't have to use my shower because they have no water.

This all became clear to me recently. If the student body really does consider Paul Weaver to be "the new Hitler" then we really need to check ourselves. College students have traditionally been at the forefront of social changes, we are the young and the educated. In the '60s college students burned bras, today we pull fire alarms.

A new perspective is needed. When I'm middle aged and looking back at my college years, I hope that I'll be able to tell my children that I took a stand against something more important than a bunch of suits inside an old mansion. We need a cause, something real to believe in. And believe me, James Dean wouldn't have given President [adorola a second thought. Chris Nielsen is the perspectives editor of Loquitur. He pledges full support to anyone who wants to burn their bras.