Opinion Piece: Having a Mare...All Year Long!!!!!!

So, first-years are lazy and we drink too much. Got it. I’ll remember to tell my mother that next time she phones for our weekly chat and asks, “How’re things going there, my girl?” I don’t understand assumptions that are made by lecturers at this university, considering that once upon a time they too were first years and they too partied once or twice when they shouldn’t have. Am I missing something here? They graduated didn’t they and I’m pretty sure that they consider their lives a success. Over and over again we are attacked by lecturers and tutors alike who always fail to remember the great mark we received for our last assignment. A little contradictory considering they didn’t spend Wednesday night at home, working. I know this because I shared a cane train with my tutor yesterday. Never did I expect this sort of treatment from grown men and women. Surely, as a lecturer, one comes to sympathise with one’s students when they ask for an extension for the first time in the year only because the course was so badly planned out that all the biggest assignments are left to be done in the last two weeks of the year. Right before we have to hand in possibly the most important application form of our lives – the one for second year Journalism and Media Studies. Rather than wasting our time, why don’t lecturers actually lecture and keep their noses out of our social lives. I don’t think it’s appropriate for a male lecturer to comment on who will be sleeping in my bed with me that night after I have been caught talking. Do you? The School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes states in its mission statement that it aims to uphold the visions of the South African Constitution. Doesn’t Section fourteen D of the Constitution state that everyone has the right to privacy which includes the privacy of their communications? Surely, the letters we write to our friends in lectures form part of our communication, so therefore according to Section fourteen a lecturer has no right to read these letters. When students do arrive for their lectures, shouldn’t we actually be taught about the course work set out in the syllabus instead of being preached to about attending lectures? Doesn’t really make sense considering we are already there. Do our lecturers honestly believe that when we get back to residence, we run into our friend’s room and complain that they weren’t there? Somehow I don’t hear the words, “You’re wasting your parents’ money, Meg!” coming out of my mouth on a Thursday morning. If my friends don’t want to attend Journalism lectures, all it really means is that the chances of me making it into second year Journalism are improved. I apologise if this seems harsh; the stress and difficulty experienced due to my second year application has made me slightly bitchy. As first-years we have come to understand that our success and survival here at Rhodes comes down to time management. If our work is completed on time for the ridiculous deadlines, surely we’re doing something right. If we can balance our social lives and our academics, no matter how unstable the balance may be, I believe we’ve made it. So to every first-year who’s still a first-year, congratulations! I’m glad that’s over. Anyone for a drink?