Student Life Punishment Essay

 

April 26, 1999

 

            Alas, the school year is coming to an end, and the amount of schoolwork has multiplied for this poor soul. Unfortunately, I have been coerced into the construction of yet another paper. I have a fairly foggy recollection of the event that has landed me in the quandary of writing this essay, but I feel that it is fairly safe to assume that I was enjoying a smoke of cannabis sativa with a couple of friends of mine during interim break, a truly hellish time to be on the University of Redlands campus. My friends and I were innocently passing the time when ever so suddenly, a pair of campus safety officers knocked on the door, entered the room and confiscated my friend’s pipe and essentially destroyed our evening. The resident adviser responsible for communicating with campus safety that evening was Alida Stanowitz, the second floor R.A. in east hall. Before I continue, I would like to indicate that this essay is not going to be one of thought reform or normalization. I loathe normalcy and thought control, two things the student life office is atrociously guilty of promulgating. You see, there a few points I would like to make; (1) I am an honors student, with a grade point average of 3.74, therefore I can take care of myself, (2) the application of student life policy is inherently racist and discriminatory in nature towards those outside the norm and (3) that the consumption of alcohol is far more dangerous in a college environment than the smoking of marijuana. I would like to begin with the second point.

 

            Redlands is easily the most boring location I have ever spent any reasonable amount of time inhabiting. Due to this university’s unfortunately low standards for admission, the majority of the students at this school are not intellectuals seeking intellectual enlightenment, but rather a mish mash of stupid rich white kids whose parents can pay the cost of full tuition. This is fairly evident throughout the C.A.S. community. There is little to no capability to engage in intellectual interaction with fellow students. What can I say, I am quite outside the mainstream at this university, either for my leftist, anti-American political views, my post-modern philosophical views and my liberal social views. My feelings that Redlands is the wrong place to have a university is widespread among the student population. Everyone at Redlands is a drunkard in one way or another. The leftist intellectuals escape the horrors of living in this ridiculous white sub-urban plastic paradise by engaging in drug use, the stupid people turn to religious intoxication and the narrow-minded fraternity and sorority members turn to hazing and heavy alcoholism. Every student needs intoxication, and this is the direct result of Redlands being the ludicrous city that it is. Unfortunately, the university condones religious brainwashing and fraternity alcoholism, due to the relatively acceptable social space they fill given the white aristocratic culture of the university’s elite administrators. Religious morons and conservative drunks pose no threat to the system of living implicitly espoused by the brass. This university openly allows such offensive postings engineered by the Campus Crusade for Christ to be placed in my dormitory building and other dorms as well. These fuckers want to tell me as though I’m not a “real person” and that I don’t have “real relationships” with “real people” or a “real god”. What the hell kind of shit is that? These posters are approved by your ridiculous office[1], and I am quite frankly, offended. I thought this was a secular university, not a covertly Christian one. What if I wanted to make a posting that invited people to get together and ritualistically consume pot? Probably wouldn’t get approved, would it? This school obviously has a Christian slant. But these religious brainwashers serve your interests, don’t they? They resemble the university’s attempt to homogenize the student body into a predictable mass, with no original ideas. Is this a place of education and learning, or a business-like homogenization factory? So long as the checks continue to roll in, I suppose the student’s education and level of intellectualism in the environment are secondary concerns. I, being a person existing outside of the brainwashed pro-Christian normativity, become a threat to that normativity, and I am therefore singled out for persecution by the R.A.’s whose homogenizing activities I refuse to attend. Alida Stanowitz, in particular seems to harbor a grudge towards me for not participating in these activities. I have word of mouth proof that she plays favorites in enforcement, even ignoring illegal activities committed by her friends and those whose lips are glued to her ass, including narcotic consumption and sales. Yes, this is a big accusation, and I feel secure and comfortable making it. Consistently, Alida singles out international students and students of color that don’t fit her pre-scribed norms of social interaction for disciplinary action. Alida, if questioned about these accusations, will no doubt suggest that I am insane, criminal even, but these potential counter-accusations have no a shrapnel of truth to back them up. Look at my grades, I am a responsible adult.

 

            Continuing with this theme of responsibility, I have a grade point average of 3.74, I am a member of the Proudian Interdisciplinary Honors Program and I have even achieved grades of 4.0 in many upper division classes, including a senior seminar in Government with Dr. Robert Jackson (I am a Sophomore). My professors all think quite highly of me, and I don’t harm others with my personal choices. I keep to myself. I do not have a criminal or juvenile record, I have never raped, date-raped, murdered or stolen from anyone. How many ill-witted fraternity jocks can claim that? I don’t get into fights, I do battles with my mind. I am quite harmless; I am here to study, and I am well aware of this. I choose not to consume alcoholic beverages in excess, as my intellectual decision is that alcohol is more destructive both mentally and socially than marijuana. This school openly promotes the consumption of alcoholic beverages, with pathetic attempts to spice up life here such as “Friday at Five” and frat/sorority parties. If you want to run a university, and not a drunk-pen, ban the goddamn greek system altogether. You’ll have a university environment of open-minded intellectuals, rather than one consisting of burly brutes and self-hating females. The process by which one becomes a greek inherently forces an individual to subordinate him or herself to the will of other irrational foolish idiots. I may be gripping to an intellectual morality that this university (aka-business oriented, rather than academically oriented) no longer or have never espoused. I found an escape from the tyranny of your office, I have become a Johnston student, where what the student’s views may be actually hold some realistic sway. Stop trying to homogenize me, it only makes me hate the establishment more than I already do. Stop championing the ways of old and evil[2], it destroys free thought and therefore cripples the university environment.

 

            Given this, why do I choose to smoke marijuana? Simple. Marijuana is an escape from the simplistic, everyday drudgery of being and honors student. I am a hard working individual, when I want to relax, I feel as though I have earned the right to do so from the levels of arduous labor I complete daily. Marijuana makes me an amiable person, capable of love and friendship, despite my hatred of most people. My context is severely jaded, and this is my release. Whenever I have consumed alcohol, I find myself being only more aggressive physically and isolationistic mentally. Marijuana opens one’s mind, smoke some, you’ll see. Smoke some with me, we’ll have an intellectual conversation about philosophy, politics, society, love, friendship, cultures, the arts, etc. Don’t have a closed mind to something that you have no experience in. Life is about experimenting, not living a dark, lightless hole. My grades have gone up, not down, since I began recreationally consuming Marijuana. My mind is at least near freedom, if not totally free from social norms, such as wearing clothing, that I inevitably practice for pragmatic reasons are things that I am aware that I do, but are not beyond the realm of questioning. Although I shall conclude now, I feel that my remarks on the matter have been candid, and well thought out. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak my mind, despite the overall oppressiveness of your office.


[1] I certainly feel that the Student Life office is a mechanism to control the student’s lives, not to better them. Student life and Campus Safety (aka-Rent a Pig) should both be disbanded.

[2] In my experience, “old” and in “old people” and “evil” as in the antonym if good and freedom, are essentially synonymous. Old people, such as old white men and token women that run the UOR, feel as though they are losing control of society. The old obviously are, as they will die sooner than the young, losing control. The key to being a reasonable, rational person, is knowing when to let go of your power over others and allow the way of life to flow freely.