The Campus Story

It's page three news and begs questions....but it came up in the past week with the University of Missouri putting out a list of instructions on how to run or host on-campus events for the general student population.

In the middle of the guidelines....they 'nudge' the students to some degree and suggest that you (the students) ought to ask yourself...."If my event is potentially triggering, have I consulted with someone from the counseling center?"

Then it asks students...is this event of such a harsh thing for your lifestyle or mental side.....should you go ahead and have a counselor present to help you make it?

Finally, the university asks in a simple way....do you know where your 'safe' space is located?  It kinda reminded me of the Air Force days when you had to know your storm shelter, and that some Major might run up to you and try to test you on where the nearest tornado shelter was located.

In some ways, the university is admitting that the kids attending now (over the age of eighteen) are not mature enough or capable enough to make rational decisions, or interpret data that you hand out. 

Then you look over at this counselor business.  With a campus of 20,000 students....how many counselors would require?  Three-hundred?  Five-hundred?  If Dalton-the-student did call you up and state some personal emergency over at the campus cafeteria....that they were out of vegan-food, how would you prioritize your arrival?  Be there in six minutes?  Expect me in sixteen minutes?  Or would you just advise Dalton over the phone that jello is a good substitute?

If these kids are this immature....can you even allow them to buy a six-pack of beer?  Or to purchase a pack of Marlboros?  Could you even trust the kid to handle condoms or date some slutty gal from out-of-state? 

It seems like to me the answer here is simple.  You need to pause kids at 18, upon graduation from high school, and force them to get a job in the real world....waiting for a year before going off to college.  Maybe even two years of waiting. Perhaps they ought to even consider developing an Army boot-camp system where you go through twelve weeks of intense training to bring your maturity level up two or three notches. 

The atmosphere up at Missouri?  It makes me curious if they have some kind of maturity problem across the state and got a bunch of kids pretending to be eighteen-years-old, when their behavior level appears to be 12-years-old.

It's a pretty bad situation when a campus leadership position is there to suggest you can't handle reality but we'll accept you on campus anyway.