“Everyone hugs at St. Mike’s”
Survey responses leave questionable impression

Justin Veiga | executive editor

At the end of last week, President Neuhauser sent out a campus-wide e-mail asking St. Michael’s students to complete an online survey provided by the Princeton Review.  The survey is aimed at determining how students who are enrolled in one of the Review’s 366 Best Colleges view their campus, college life and institution.

Student responses are then compiled and posted on the Review’s Web site, a popular stop for high school guidance counselors and prospective students alike.  The obvious concept behind this request is that information received directly from students about their college is perhaps the most accurate set of facts available for prospective students regarding each institution. 

Because of this, it is critical that students take the time to complete this survey and do so honestly, accurately and appropriately. Currently, the responses from St. Michael's students posted on the Princeton Review's Web site do not reflect such a level of maturity. Here’s what prospective students are learning about St. Michael’s:

Students find that their school "lives up to all the hype about having a friendly and supportive community." For example, "Everyone hugs at Saint Mike's. Whenever you see anyone you know, you are greeted by a big hug." SUV-driving, Lacoste-sporting "hockey jocks," and Birkenstock-wearing, jam-band-listening hippies can be found embracing each other. Even a Republican Yankees fan from Vermont claims to get along with the majority of "Democrat Red Sox fans from Massachusetts." Among the 2,000 students, we find common ground in a shared enthusiasm for winter sports, marijuana, and (mostly left-wing) political action. A senior offers the general template: "Most students do volunteer work, enjoy low-key partying, and care about grades but more about experiences."

Students survive the winters by employing a two-pronged attack of winter sports and drinking. The school-subsidized $25 season passes to Smugglers' Notch ski resort helps students save money for the bars. The under-21 crowd gets drunk before and after the alcohol-free dances or makes the trek to Montreal.

Apparently, the student consensus on this campus is that we are an institution made up of friendly, rich individuals who selected St. Michael's due to a love for Birkenstocks, jam-bands, skiing, winter lagers and hallucinogens.

Whether or not this is true, there are far greater aspects of our student body that should be divulged, especially on a Web site catering so much and so frequently to high school students looking for information about colleges and universities that they may potentially apply at some point.

In filling out these surveys, St. Michael’s students should not aim to hide the truth and cover up the aspects of our college that may not appear favorable in a guidance counselor’s office or on a father’s laptop.  The goal, however, should not be only to showcase the school’s social atmosphere.  The student body at this institution represents much more than that.

We are a group of activists, of leaders and of volunteers.  We excel in the classroom, on our playing fields and across the greater Burlington community, working to ensure that this institution’s name and reputation remain positive and held in high regard.