Hendrix Community: Combining Rights and Responsibility
Eddie Cobb
Issue date: 5/3/02 Section: Opinion
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Last weekend, I went on a road trip. The details don't matter much, but I wanted to see a friend of mine who is leaving the country soon after his graduation. My friend attends Mercer College, so last Thursday I jumped in the car and started the nine hour drive to Macon, Georgia. The weekend was great, and while in Georgia I was able to read the Mercer student newspaper, The Cluster. Mercer is wrapping up this week, so many of the columnists, especially the seniors, were giving advice to returning students, hoping to pass on the knowledge they had gained after four years of school. If I may be so bold, I would like to do the same thing here.
This term, I began my first on-campus job. I have been short on money all year (due to a great propensity to spend cash faster than I can make it), so I went to the cafeteria and asked for a job washing dishes. My freshman year, I would never have considered that action. The cafeteria is gross, and God knows what people would've thought if they had seen me working there. Of course, students work in the cafeteria every year, but for some reason I believed the work was below me. Thanks to poor fiscal planning, however, a cafeteria job became necessary, so I took advantage of the opportunity offered. Since then, I have seen a side of campus which I believe is missed by the majority of students here—we are neglecting a wealth of positive interaction and compromising our sense of community in the process.
How many students here know the name of the janitor in their hall? Are you friends with the ladies who serve your meals each day? How about the staffperson who cleans the blackboards in Mills each morning or picks beer cans out of the Drunk Trap every Saturday? If you don't know these people, why not? Have you taken the time to say hello, or in the rush of the everyday has the opportunity never arisen?
I am asking these questions because I am just now realizing how hard many of the Hendrix staff works and how much they care about doing their jobs well. It wasn't until this term in the cafeteria that I have realized what goes into making this college work.Dishes must be washed, so Miss Salley heads a crew up to get the job done every day. Jennifer and Chandra and Miss Lavada help, and when we're really busy Herman and Shaun and Peanut pitch in too. Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of fun in that back room; we spray each other with water, sing songs, and laugh every time somebody drops a plate, but the point is that the cafeteria wouldn't work without the people mentioned above. In addition, staffmembers prepare the food each day, serve it up, and do their damn best to make sure the cafeteria is clean and pleasant every time a student walks in the door.
This term, I began my first on-campus job. I have been short on money all year (due to a great propensity to spend cash faster than I can make it), so I went to the cafeteria and asked for a job washing dishes. My freshman year, I would never have considered that action. The cafeteria is gross, and God knows what people would've thought if they had seen me working there. Of course, students work in the cafeteria every year, but for some reason I believed the work was below me. Thanks to poor fiscal planning, however, a cafeteria job became necessary, so I took advantage of the opportunity offered. Since then, I have seen a side of campus which I believe is missed by the majority of students here—we are neglecting a wealth of positive interaction and compromising our sense of community in the process.
How many students here know the name of the janitor in their hall? Are you friends with the ladies who serve your meals each day? How about the staffperson who cleans the blackboards in Mills each morning or picks beer cans out of the Drunk Trap every Saturday? If you don't know these people, why not? Have you taken the time to say hello, or in the rush of the everyday has the opportunity never arisen?
I am asking these questions because I am just now realizing how hard many of the Hendrix staff works and how much they care about doing their jobs well. It wasn't until this term in the cafeteria that I have realized what goes into making this college work.Dishes must be washed, so Miss Salley heads a crew up to get the job done every day. Jennifer and Chandra and Miss Lavada help, and when we're really busy Herman and Shaun and Peanut pitch in too. Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of fun in that back room; we spray each other with water, sing songs, and laugh every time somebody drops a plate, but the point is that the cafeteria wouldn't work without the people mentioned above. In addition, staffmembers prepare the food each day, serve it up, and do their damn best to make sure the cafeteria is clean and pleasant every time a student walks in the door.
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