Where are we? College. What is the root of that word? Colleague. And the root of that one? It’s Latin, meaning “chosen together for a task.” So, what’s the task that we’ve been chosen, or chosen ourselves, to perform here?

In last week’s Weekly section of the Daily you may have read the Social Diary of an anonymous “junior fratstar.” On five of the seven described days he either “packed a personal,” “ripped some bowls,” “blew trees,” or merely “got high.” One night he “spit some solid game,” which caused him to proclaim, “Making out is sweeeeeet.” Tuesday, he “decided to skip class because watching the Giants game was more important.” And so forth. And this was published by my peers at The Daily. And maybe some of my peers at this school found it to be valuable reading.

Also last week, Burgwell Howard, Dean of Students, had to inform off-campus students that it is unacceptable to yell derogatory words at people and to urinate and vomit on others’ property. In the same week, students pledging for Yale’s DKE fraternity were filmed outside of girls’ dorms chanting phrases that the Women’s Center at that school deemed “an active call for sexual violence.” Maybe you don’t think these three incidents should be compared. Maybe one or two or all three of them are just the rowdy, though ultimately innocent, shenanigans of some silly college guys. So, I’ll say for myself and for anyone who agrees with me, all three of these perfectly reflect the culture that is perpetuated and celebrated on this campus – a culture of vulgarity, misogyny, and more than anything apathy for deep thought and real morality. And the people that take such actions are not my colleagues. We have not been chosen for the same task, we do not choose the same task. I do not consider us to be members of the same college community.

College should be the place where we make reasoned and responsible choices together, where we discuss, form, and act out our ideals as a community. A place where we bind and build ourselves through shared principles and acts. You might say some of us have forsaken that goal, but it would be more accurate to say, some have no clue that that is what they are here for. Jordan Forney, the president of that Yale fraternity, issued an apology in which he said that the chants were a “serious lapse in judgment.” Those pre-packaged words are appallingly empty! Yelling “No means yes. Yes means anal” at women is not a lapse in judgment, it’s a reflection that they lack judgment entirely; it’s a degradation of the institutions they belong to, and it’s a disgrace to themselves and to humanity in general.

Why is it, as is so often said, that a B.A. means nothing these days? It’s not because post-graduate school is where the real work is done, though that’s true also. It’s because everyone knows how pitifully little we have to do to “earn” these degrees, and how much time we spend doing nothing of any remote moral or intellectual substance. I cannot support the culture that perpetuates this degradation. Understand, I’m not against pot, I’m against apathy. I’m not against parties, I’m against vulgarity. And I’m not against fraternities, I’m against misogyny.

People do a lot of good things in college. But, more often than not, they do them solely with their money, not with conscience. Yes, the Snoop Dogg and Kid Cudi concert raised thousands for people in Pakistan, but it did so by celebrating lyrics like these: “I got a pocket full of rubbers and my homeboys do too/So turn off the lights and close the doors/But we don’t love them hoes.” Last year, Dance Marathon donated $500,000 to the chosen charities, but that amounts to the tuition for fewer than 10 Northwestern students. So, what is all the money we’re paying to be here really going toward? Is it just to get a piece of paper with two letters on it? Is it to have fun? Is it like I heard one of my peers say last week, “I’m trying to get my work done so I can watch the game”?

I ask again: what’s the task that we’ve been chosen, or chosen ourselves, to perform here? Where are we?

Jamie Weissmann is a Weinberg senior and can be reached at [email protected].