Editorial: Connecting the dots

Many classes and stories of our time talk about recent progress of western culture—civil rights, gender equality, environmental concerns, political transparency and economic efficiency. Overall, the West has successfully improved the standards of living, but much of the baccalaureate core identifies issues still in need of improvement.

Many of these issues involve a common metaphor: missing the forest for the trees. While current trends include an explosion of information and media—connecting everything and everyone—is this trend contributing to that metaphor? Is this university too focused on the figurative trees? Are we failing as a generation to identify our goals and construct the methods of completing them?

The Oct. 4 Austin Fellows Fireside Chat with B. Scott Taylor, founder of Portland marketing agency Taow Productions, provided inspiring anecdotes from a successful and charismatic man. Taylor’s most valuable insights were about internships and social networks as necessary ways to better oneself. While his perspective is a necessary contribution and an invaluable look at the real world, the event itself failed to address the overall issues of society and our generation. Most internships—the source of the best opportunities—are unpaid. In some cases, qualified individuals have to turn down or not apply for internships that do not pay, they simply cannot afford to live. The pool of applicants suddenly dwindles. Those individuals then lose a shot at networking.

Many professors and organizations around campus are excited about “our” generation—the baby boom echo. More than 70 million strong, we as a whole will not complete college until 2025, and not fully integrate into society until years after that. It is during our formative years of school and close family connections that all of us build our sense of morals, ethics and identity; this is the value of culture. One of the most important questions for both us and them is, are we learning to continue the norms or are we learning to improve the norms?

The individual situations—conversations between peers and professors—are excellent to provide this direction. Lecture series are an excellent source of these conversations, allowing students to compare histories, theories and terms from curriculum to current practice. We support these and attend these, receiving great inspiration—but so often it is on an individual level. Because both the amount of information and sources of it increase and contribute to a “media overload,” is the current structure of classes and programs contributing to this problem? Are there any widespread, meaningful understandings of the needs and goals of a generation? When a guest lecturer furthers practices this college’s curriculum aims to eliminate, are they undoing the valuable efforts of our faculty?