Laptops have crushed campus spirit

Last week’s editorial in the Acadia student newspaper, The Atheneum, made me pause. It was so sad. Editor Lucas Timmons took on the topic of student apathy. He looked around the campus and placed the blame squarely on the Acadia Advantage program.

“Yes, in an age when student apathy is the norm, Acadia once again leads the pack. The question is why.” He stated, “like many other problems here at Acadia, the Acadia Advantage is the answer.”

Timmons got this perspective after looking at a pile of old yearbooks. “Look at the yearbook for any year prior to the introduction of the Acadia Advantage. For the most part you will see photos filled with a large number of people. Social events were well attended. School spirit existed.”

He also blames security concerns on campus and renovated residences for altering the esprit de corps. “Instead of upgrading the residences to a place people wanted to live, they ruined them.”

Then Timmons suggests that campus programs took the fun out of Frosh Week, as well as other social events, in the name of political correctness. “If people can’t have fun on campus they simply leave and don’t come back,” he wrote.

The laptops demolished student interest, he added. “When you can do everything online, why bother doing it in person? Students sit in their rooms, behind closed doors, and do nothing.”

Recent graduate Gus Webb says that in the not-too-distant past there were 66 clubs at Acadia. He wrote, “university is not just about courses and marks, but about expanding your horizons and concentrating on your interests, and clubs are a great way to participate in activities with others.”

Most student groups (55 are listed for 2006) are curricular, international student clubs or athletics-related, but it’s a far cry from 30 years ago. Without sounding pompous, I feel sorry for today’s students at one of the most expensive universities in Canada.

I can just remember before there was a beverage room in Wolfville, when students had to make their own entertainment. And we created many wonderful memories.

My extracurricular involvements were equally as educational for me as my course work. But today there is no literary magazine or radio station or dramatics society. There’s no rollicking musical every year. Nobody plays boisterous cards in the SUB anymore; they’re all plugged into laptops.

Instead of the phone, my youngest communicates with his friends on MSN. That’s a reality, but many will be glad in September when Acadia concludes its so-called Advantage program. I know if I’m invited into a classroom there again I won’t be faced with students paying more attention to their screens than the guest speaker.

Perhaps it’s true what president Gail Dinter-Gottlieb says. “Canadian opinion leaders recognize the value of Acadia’s innovative teaching model and our graduates find the transition from classroom to career easier because of their familiarity with technology.” But life isn’t all about business.

University in a small town should be such a rich, formative experience and hopefully Acadia can return to its positive pre-laptop roots.