The last drop
Jake Dubuque | contributing columnist
jdubuque@smcvt.edu
EDINBURGH, May 1--I went to the Beltane last night, an ancient pagan fire festival, to herald the coming of summer. Standing in a sea of some 10,000 people on the top of a hill, overlooking the city of Edinburgh, I realized that this was the celebration of the end and the beginning. It was a celebration of the end of winter and the beginning of summer. As waving fire sticks created pictures in the night and bodies painted red formed giant pyramids, time stood still. For just a moment there was only the present, illuminated by flickering light on top of the hill. And then time continued.
With the end of my time in Edinburgh approaching and the end of my junior year just weeks away, I wanted to take a moment to think about the past and future. For three years now, I’ve been part of the St. Michael’s community, and met a lot of terrific people. I’ve been challenged academically and socially to become a better person. And that’s what makes St. Michael’s great. But greatness is not a static thing, and the road to greatness is not a paved highway, but rather a dirt road with jarring potholes. The reason why people and institutions fail to achieve their potential is not because they can’t get through the six lanes of traffic but because they took the wrong road.
St. Michael’s is at a transition point now, and the question is where to go from here. There is no doubt that the institution has a lot of potential, but I worry that it doesn’t have the vision to realize it. The school has come a long way under the leadership of President Marc vanderHeyden and he deserves a lot of credit for the success of the institution. But I think the time approaches when a new set of ideas is needed to further develop the school’s potential.
The selection of a new president would force the college to decide which direction it wants to go. A strong Catholic, perhaps even a relatively youthful, priest would demonstrate a strong commitment to the faith and heritage of the college. The next president must also encourage diversity within the faculty. A well-rounded department should not be based on skin color but on balanced ideologies and specializations that present students with unique approaches to education. A politics department without a single conservative professor is not diverse.
A new president would lay out a vision for the institution and bring new energy to solve old problems. If the road to greatness is littered with potholes, I like to think that this column has been keen to point them out. A Phi Beta Kappa school with the lowest funded library is a pretty big one. In the era of globalization, a study abroad department that restricts and financially penalizes students for going abroad is another. For the college to sustain its policy of required campus housing, it must navigate around the massive pothole of authoritarian regulations and inappropriate housing for seniors.
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The Student Association (S.A.) has the ultimate turnover with presidents, a new one every year. I fear though, that the elections have become more of a popularity contest than anything else. I worry that the current president-elect, junior Arly Scully, does not have a good grasp on the potential of the Student Association and its needed reforms. She once had a column in The Echo, but if that is to be any judge of her administration, she seemed more concerned with sumo squirrels in the quad or ghosts in the wall.
When The Echo interviewed her, she said she wanted to increase communication with students, update the S.A’s Web site, and find longer hours for those who want to go to the gym in their spandex. As serious as updating the Web site is, I was underwhelmed. She’s dead right about the inadequate gym facilities, but what about the library? Or the lack of wireless Internet on campus? Where is her concern for the students who don’t get to study abroad? Or those seniors who are of age but aren’t allowed to drink in the housing they pay $7,000 to live in? I hope that last concern is addressed by the vice-president elect, junior Allan Smith. There’s a rather dashing photo of him being doused by beer in celebration of his victory. Why would the administration take these student representatives seriously? It will be interesting to see in what direction they will lead the Senate.
With that, three years of St. Michael’s comes to a close. I still think the best is yet to come for me, the administration, and for the S.A. I hope we all chose the dirt road to greatness – especially the seniors, who face the choice with even more immediacy. For the rest of us, after exams comes summer – by far the greatest season in Vermont.
