A final farewell from the senior editors (Liz Reichart)
By Liz Reichart// A&E Editor
To begin to count the many ways in which the Campus Chronicle has made a formative impact on my university experience would result in an enumeration of all of my favorite things. My best friends, my roommates, my constant supporters, my late night arguments over the merits of Kanye West versus Taylor Swift: they were found in these pages, these 50 issues I have worked on over four years as Arts & Entertainment Editor. Despite this, what I will cherish most about the Campus Chronicle is the way in which it serves as an outlet for critical thinking.
Every detail at this university is designed to maximize comfort, and while it makes finding a chair at one of our five pools easier, it does not adjust one for what comes after the lavish senior week wine tour: a nine to five job that is “sort of”, “kinda” the thing you want to pursue, but not entirely. The only magic meals you’ll be seeing are the 85 cent packets of instant mac and cheese that cook in just one minute 30 seconds. This is where the rest of the world has a comparative advantage over us. These hardened college graduates have been balancing paying rent for their off-campus housing with their food, laundry, and utilities budgets for four years now. For a school that is determined to chart students on a course to success post-graduation, the irony is we are woefully under-prepared for the social aspects of the world outside this microcosm.
It should frighten you, the idea that everyone is going to look at you like you’re Elle Woods at the beginning of Legally Blonde: completely out of place and oblivious to the world around you. Every student here has been living in a Plato-esque cave of amenities, that the light will sting when you emerge. I challenge graduates and students alike to embrace life outside of High Point University, but urge them to bear in mind, it will not be a bed of grass spray painted green as we are used to.
Why do I mention this? There is a way to fight being woefully underprepared for the world outside brick gates, and it is found in critical thinking instead of passive acceptance of one’s environment. The Campus Chronicle has allowed myself and others to be critical of our university’s operations, because that is what a university press does. This is what all free press does, and believe it or not, criticism of High Point University is integral to its sustained operations because it is founded in an idea of constant improvement.
Four years have taught me this: You can still be a proud student of this institution but recognize its faults in offering flashy amenities over substantial programs that promote economic and racial diversity. You can still love your school and want to make it better. The Campus Chronicle provided me an environment in which I could do both, and a fond farewell to this university and this esteemed publication it will be.