By
Connor Doyle
Lat week, a little-known reserve on the Utah Jazz named DeShawn Stevenson had sex with a 15 year-old girl. This, of course, was terrible. But what was even more terrible was people saying that Stevenson might not have committed the crime had he gone to college.
You see, Stevenson was drafted into the NBA right out of high school. At the time, there were lots of people who suggested that the young man should go to a university for at least a couple of years because he wasn't ready for the NBA. Now people are saying that he should have gone to university so he wouldn't have committed statutory rape.
Apparently, if someone goes into college a creep, they'll emerge after four years well along the road to canonization.
So, here's a little newsflash for anyone who seems to share this view of college.
There is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, about going to a university that makes someone a better person.
This type of opinion on the effect of college can be attributed to the generation gap that exists between a lot of today's students and their parents. Quite a few of the adults of today lived in a time when it wasn't necessary to go to college to get a good job, so universities were reserved for either really rich kids with four years on their hands, or the really, really smart kids that wanted to get a profession. A four-year college was seen as a place of intellectual enrichment, where young men and women would hobnob with the best and brightest of academia.
This mystique has hung around the institution of higher education, even though things have changed a little. No longer is higher education a junior country club for the rich or a breeding ground of future Nobel prize winners - if you live in the state of Arizona, ASU will accept you as long as you have a pulse. No money? Each university has lots of scholarships, grants and loans that can be yours if you fill out the paperwork. Don't worry about that GPA, either - there are scholarships reserved for people who are over 6'2". If I had only hit that growth spurt a little earlier.
So what kind of character development is still reserved only for the college grad? Well, none. Sure, college is a great place for those just emerging from puberty to hang out, meet people (business majors call that "networking"), play video games, obtain some type of chemical dependency and occasionally go to class, weather permitting. But there's nothing about our experience that is inherently enriching. Nothing about it that makes us good people. Hell, most of the people I think are bad are that way because of college.
I mean, have none of these people seen the average frat party or Thursday night at Maloney's? Have they not seen the average dorm room or college apartment? Have they not seen the drop-out rates? Have they not seen an Alabama-Auburn tailgate party, or the run of the mill riot after your team wins/loses the National Championship game? Have they not seen the campus of ASU?
Of course it's ridiculous for someone to think that college has this type of effect on its students. But I submit that lots of people still think this way, and it's bothersome to me.
I'm worried that every parent who raises a kid with criminal tendencies is going to ship them off to the good ol' UA and think they're going to come back wanting to join the Peace Corps.
More personally, I don't want some old lady seeing me wearing my UA hat and hitting me up for some help with her groceries or a walk across the street.
People need to realize that it's not the school (or lack of it) that makes good people. It's the people that make good people. It's the parents that make good people. It's rap music that makes good people.
So, the next time I hear someone say that Shane Battier, the Duke grad who has become the toast of the basketball world because he's - gasp - a nice human being, is that way because he went to college for all four years, I'm going to consider hitting them over the head with one of those paddles used for fraternity hazing.
And no, I'm not helping anyone with their groceries.
