Small world, even smaller school
We all chose Alfred University for a reason. The beautiful campus (at least in the fall and spring), the academic programs, the reputations of professors, the friendly atmosphere and even athletics may have contributed to your decision. Many students also pick AU because of its size. Going to a smaller school generally means that class sizes are smaller, you get more one-on-one time with your professors, you’re treated as a person rather than a number and the experience isn’t as overwhelming compared to a larger school. Despite these reasons to attend a small school, students soon encounter several pitfalls that go hand in hand with a small school.
If you live in an environment surrounded by the same people day in and day out, it will start to wear on you, no matter what the setting. I see the same people walking to classes, the same people in the classes, the same people at social gatherings and parties and the same people at GJ’s and Alex’s. They’re everywhere and you can’t get away from them. The same can be said about relationships. You don’t really know somebody until you start living with them and, to me, it feels like we at Alfred are a big family living together. As happens with a significant other, subtle nuances start to become apparent once you start spending serious time with people. These nuances can be good, but they can also be bad and rub you the wrong way. It is the same for social web of peers formed at small schools.
I’ve described Alfred to many people as very "high school," not in terms of education but in terms of maturity and, more specifically, gossip. The rate at which rumors spread around Alfred, you would think that everybody has Sprint Mobil 2-way radio features on their cell phones.
“Hey, did you hear Danny kissed Suzie? Did you hear Tommy slept with Marcia? Ooooo, I heard Joanie loves Chachi!”
It’s childish, it’s stupid and I don’t like it. I was looking forward to life in college to escape my "nosey neighbor" high school environment, not go through four more years of the social buzz and tattle tales.
A very important person once said, “Your reputation is your most important feature,” and I agree. It’s something that is so important yet so fragile. In a place such as Alfred, it’s not hard to achieve a positive reputation, but it’s even easier to throw it all away and make yourself the campus asshole. Bad reputations are hard to escape and if you’re at a small school, forget about it. To dig yourself out of hole that deep will take more than time; it takes a change in scenery where no one knows you. Unfortunately, if you reach that point, it’s time to start fresh with a clean slate and that’s not happening at a community such as this one.
Cell phones and social-networking websites like Facebook and MySpace don’t make this problem any better. They effectively take a school or social environment and shrink it by informing more people of the personal business affairs of others. I like Facebook as a networking resource to contact friends and look at a few pictures, but I would rather not have the potential for social stalking that comes with a username and password. I guess I shouldn’t expect anything more from Facebook, as it was invented as a way to find out who’s in your classes and who's dating who on college campuses. Enhanced communication in general makes any environment smaller, but that’s the world we live in.
I didn’t want this to be a bash session towards Alfred University because the University can't do anything about this. If you have friends, siblings or even kids of your own someday and they are in the process of picking a college or University, make sure to mention this to them and have them consider the small size of a college for its negatives as well as its positives. The four years I have spent here have been the best of my life, but I would have rather have lived here without the presence of high school students who call themselves members of the Alfred University community.
