Well, it’s May, which can only mean one thing: graduation. Some of us are lucky enough to get out of Babson Park, and yet it’s strangely sentimental. In effect, due to graduation, I guess this is really my last post on the blog, which adds to that sentiment. But I’d like to go out addressing both sides of this bipolar nature of graduation.

Yes, it’s that time of year when some people get all teary-eyed and look back on the fond memories they had of their wonderful college experience. Unfortunately, those people don’t go to Babson, they go to real colleges. So really it’s that time of year when people have to say goodbye to the close friends they’ve made, bring back all of those “remember when…” moments, and at the same time lift a huge weight off their shoulders. That weightless feeling is not a hallucination. It is Babson removing its hands from your shoulders and pulling out of your anus because they have finally finished banging you.

Well, of course they will constantly ask you to pay them donations for the amazing butt sex they just gave you. But you can read more about that in my previous post (“Why You Should Never Donate to Babson”). More importantly, it is that time when you finally get to leave campus and start searching for a really good psychiatrist. After all, you need someone to help you get through the last four years you managed to survive. Some of you may have found a happy place while being raped, but suppressed memories are not healthy. Others may emerge from Babson and not be able to visit other campuses for a while because of the emotional damage done here. Whatever the situation, hopefully your job’s medical insurance covers most of the cost because you’ve spent enough during your time here.

Anyway, for those of you who are still completing the “Babson Experience” or are deciding whether they want such an experience, I thought I would make some final, summarizing thoughts from the other side of the fence.

In my experience, Babson wasn’t worth it, and if I had to do college over again, I would most definitely choose a different option. I came from a graduating class of 79 people in high school, where I was friends with pretty much everyone in my class and most of my school, as well as the faculty, staff, and admins. It was the epitome of what a small school should be like, and represented every reason why a person would prefer a small school to a large one: small class sizes, students aren’t just another number, no bureaucracy, close-knit community, etc. Then I come to Babson, which prides itself on being a small school, and I immediately associated it with the amazing experiences I had in high school. Well, unfortunately, that wasn’t Babson at all. Babson, in a nutshell, is a large school in small school’s clothing.

What do I mean by that? I mean when’s the last time the administration made you feel like you were a living, breathing human being? It rarely happens, if ever. But isn’t that sort of the essence of a community? We’re pretend like we have all these good qualities in our school, and aside from teaching quality we really don’t have any. We’re like that kid you all knew in high school that tried so hard to fit in with all the cool kids that he/she ended up being a total loser. It’s sad. We get so caught up in policies and people that we end up losing sight of the big picture.

I think it may have a lot to do with the administration’s attitude. They take no investment in the students whatsoever. Take, for instance, Dean Reza. The guy is useless. I’ve had to spend an hour in the guy’s office going over my credits and class planning, when it should’ve taken 10 minutes. I wouldn’t have gone except for it was mandatory, and it was irritating to see him fumbling around with such an easy task for so long. But aside from being useless, the guy doesn’t even know people’s names. While listing off people during graduation, he was messing up some of the easiest names and mispronouncing people that most everyone in our class knew. It’s like we just hired him to come in and say names and he had never met any of us or worked with our class for 4 years. It’s embarrassing, and it’s a good example of how our class dean might as well have been with a class of 10,000 instead of 300+.

Yet, it’s also the people we let into the school. For instance, our SAT score is somewhere in the 1200′s usually. Compare that to our other competitors on the business week list. Most have higher than us. Let’s speculate for a minute. We admit about 37% of all applicants each year. That’s pretty selective. Why do we have a low SAT score then? Why don’t we select more smart kids? Well, one answer is maybe they’re just not applying. I find that hard to believe, although it is a possibility. A more likely scenario: rich mommies and daddies. This is much more believable. Follow with me for a second: Mortimer A. Smith, Sr. doesn’t want his mongoloid son Mortimer A. Smith, Jr. going to a lowly state school because it makes Sr. look bad and makes it harder for him to get Jr. a job after he graduates. Far off? Doubtful. It may unearth a correlation between the number of $30,000 cars on campus and the low SAT average. Why does the SAT matter? Well, on the surface it doesn’t. I mean, SAT score doesn’t really make you a better person or not. I merely used it to illustrate that we let in people based on how much money we’re going to get out of it instead of whether they’re actually a good person to admit. It seems like for as much as we promote entrepreneurship, we produce a bunch of robots. I’ll be the first to admit I’m no genius, but it was sickening to see so many people kiss professors’ asses with worthless participation, regurgitate things the professor or other students said, or ask professors what exactly they wanted to see on a paper or in an exam. I think some things you can figure out on your own, but most of the people here need to be programmed. Yeah, we probably produce great workers, but do we produce great leaders? Doubtful. I’d be willing to be 30 or 40 years from now people will look back and find we were more successful producing leaders when we were a party school than when we were an uptight rectum posing as a school.

The same can be said about our diverse-centered mindset? I’m all for diversity, but we do it the wrong way. What I mean is that any student from any race or country or other demographic should still be just another student. It’s great to have a diverse mix of people, but what Babson does is constantly point out the diversity and create an atmosphere that reeks of the fact that they’re only supporting diversity in order to showcase it. Why? Because it makes the school look better to the world. We’re really trying to polish up our global image even though we don’t have a domestic one west of the Hudson. Makes sense. Or maybe it could be the fact that international students get charged more and are not eligible for financial aid (translation: more cash in Babson’s pocket). It’s a slap in the face to people from diverse cultures to feel they were brought here for Babson’s benefit and not their own. In fact, it’s a slap in the face to anyone anywhere for that matter.

Most of the time when I think about these things, I just end up pissed. I was talking about it with someone at a big university the other day, and a point was brought up that similar crap is served at universities all the time. And I thought, that’s right, this stuff probably happens at a lot of places. But those schools have 20,000+ students. They have pubs and real parties and late-night food, and a million other things that we don’t have, which is partly why its students chose a big university in the first place. We come to Babson expecting the benefits of a small-school atmosphere, and instead we get the worst of both the small-school and big-school worlds. So really what it amounts to is disappointment. It’s like when you see an awesome trailer for a movie, and then when you go see the real thing it’s awful and the only good parts were from the trailer. That’s really the bottom line–disappointment. It’s not that we have no hope of making this place better, or that we had zero fun while we were here. It’s that we came in expecting to get prime rib and ended up getting prime rib cut off our own asses. And really, who wants to go to a school that’s a work in progress? Most people get an awesome four years of their lives, often the best four, and love their schools. We have to turn Babson over and shake the crap out of it just to get anywhere, and yet they wonder why we leave here pissed off. At least if they don’t want to change their ways, they could market the school the way it really is so people that come here know what they’re getting. Or else they could just let in kids that study Sunday thru Saturday, don’t go out, don’t get laid, and are easily pleased. I guess then we’d be Olin. But maybe that’s not so bad, I mean I was jealous of their end of the year party with a huge jousting platform, rock climbing wall, and a ton of other cool stuff. But hey, at least we got a has-been band and a “beer garden” that includes a fold-out table, a keg, and some solo cups (which disgraces the term “beer garden” if you have ever been to a real one).

So I guess maybe if I came in with the bar set lower and knew more of what I was getting into, then maybe I would’ve liked it more. Maybe. But then I think, why should that be the case? Why should students have to be dumbed or lamed down in order to enjoy it here? Babson purposely sets the bar so high with its marketing campaign, so shouldn’t they be held to live up to it? I think so. If they’re going to market themselves as being small-school, then they should follow up on that and create an actual small-school atmosphere, should they not? I mean otherwise it’s just a total crap shoot whether you’re going to like it here or not. Maybe it’s easier said than done to fix that kind of thing, but why don’t we use some of that innovative, entrepreneurial spirit we hear so much about? Maybe that’s bullshit too, I don’t know.

In all honesty, though, I realize I am probably way too tough on Babson (and maybe most of the site is, as well, but deservedly so). I mean, they do provide a high teaching quality, and I don’t think any of us have ever really complained about that. And there is a lot I’m going to miss, as well. Ok, maybe not “a lot,” but some things. Mostly, my friends. I walked into Map Hill the other day and went into my suite. It was completely empty. All the stuff we left in the fridge when we moved out, the kitchen stuff, all gone. The detergent we spilled on the floor, MIA. The paint on the walls we messed up from many nights of inviting our friends Jack and Jose over, all re-painted. There was natural light coming through the windows, which I don’t think ever happened while I lived there. Rooms that used to be filled with life, now desolate. Everything was gone, like we never even existed there. Needless to say, it was depressing. In one day, they came in and undid everything we did. And those are the things I’ll miss. The little things. The memories. The things that made that poorly-constructed room into a home. The things that made that piece of crap elevator into a basis for dorm-wide war.

I know I said I would never choose Babson again if I had the choice, and I wouldn’t. But I would definitely have to bring my friends with me. They’re what made tolerable everything at Babson that had no right to be so. For that, I’m forever grateful. So while we continue to crap on Babson, let’s not forget that are many more important things to escape Babson with aside from your money and dignity. When you leave Babson, all the things you hate about it get to stay behind. But all the little things I mentioned, you get to keep those with you forever.

Anyway, like I said, I know I’m normally way too hard on Babson. I can concede that. Nevertheless, most people are way too easy and/or forgiving. So the extreme weight against the school is to help students come out somewhere in the middle I think. Which is fine. You should be making the decisions for yourself. Babson has their extremely good marketing campaign that has brought you to the school in the first place, and we have our site to offset it in the efforts that hopefully you can see both sides and come up with your own opinion, whatever that may be.

I’ve had a great time writing for this site. I think it’s an awesome initiative and will help turn Babson into the place it could potentially be. I appreciate all the feedback and discussions, and even if they haven’t all directly made the school a better place I know they’ve helped get a ton of stress off all of our chests just by venting our frustration with the school. In a way, it’s united us at a place where there aren’t too many reasons to unite. And as those of us that have graduated pass the torch on, I hope that you might also pick it up and make forward progress, in the hopes that this small group of Babson-haters might one day end up as architects.

Craptain Hook out. Yarrr.

First, donating to Babson is the literal equivalent of donating to your toilet. You wouldn’t take wads of cash out of your wallet and flush it down the toilet, would you? So why would you hand over wads of your money to people who will do just that? It makes no sense at all.

Here’s what $5 does for Babson: nothing. Sure $5 across many people adds up. So maybe we can use that money for a Segue for our new president. Or maybe we can redo the entrances again because it really has been a couple months and they feel left out. Or we could pay the salaries of completely useless people in completely useless positions in the administration. It could go towards any one of a million stupid things around here.

So you say maybe it goes towards helping someone, like that it keeps tuition down. I say where is this discount in tuition, as my debt level from this school is disheartening. Should our tuition really be $60k per year? Because it’s absurd at $45+ already. Sure, maybe that ~$15k is subsidized by donations, but isn’t that just a Band-Aid for a bullet wound? So what does that really solve, then? You’re just contributing to the problem because you’re helping Babson not face the bigger issue, which is that they handle cash worse than my 7-year-old niece.

Which brings me to my next point: you’re not doing Babson any favors. The more money they get, the more they think they are doing things right. You think giving money helps the school in the long run, but it doesn’t. It only makes them hire more idiots and put off firing the ones we already have. It makes them justify wasting money because after all, if they don’t waste it then they won’t have as big of a budget next year.

Here’s a fact: if you donate a little money, they ask for more. If you donate nothing, they ask you why not. Now, if you consider that, which do you think gets more done around here–the administration continuing to throw money in the garbage, or the administration getting feedback on what they need to do in order to EARN your money?

Which brings me to yet another point: Babson should earn your donations. Yeah, they have good teaching quality. You already paid for that with $175+ tuition over 4 years. The sad part is how Babson convinces you to think that $175+ is not enough for the education you received. You have to be kidding me. If you believe that, then I also own this bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in buying. Not that Babson should take you out for dinner for your donation, but what are they doing for future classes of students that they need direct funding for? Where precisely is your money going? “Athletics” or some other general category doesn’t tell you anything. You could be putting money into “Athletics” and have it go toward new fold-out chairs for PepsiCo. Ask tough questions, and if you don’t get solid answers then you’re wasting your money.

I’d say the worst excuse for donation is that it’s going to help you in the long run. Ok, let’s say we get donations and therefore participation up, which might help bring our ranking up. Then what? It won’t bring it up more than a few spots in the rankings based on participation alone, it’s only a small part of a long equation for calculating rankings. Even if it did, what is that going to be worth by the time you see the benefit of it? After you’ve been in the work force for a while, it doesn’t matter where you got your undergrad. Plus, whether you graduate from here or from Wharton, if you’re graduating with a 2.0 then does it really matter where your school was ranked?

Going along with that, here’s an interesting thing: The last few years, donations from the senior class have been increasing, and yet our ranking has been decreasing. Judging by that trend, we should probably stop donating in order to get the ranking up…well, ok, that’s obviously not a logical deduction, but my point is really just to show that participating to help ourselves is a myth.

Basically, all I’m trying to say is think twice about it. Hell, think three or four times about it. It’s your money. When your parents aren’t paying for everything, every dollar counts. Donating gets you nothing at Babson. They will throw you a barbecue, yippie, as if you don’t deserve it just for surviving here for so long. Notice they never even said “Thank You” for the $175+ you already donated through tuition. You get at least that much when you buy a Snickers at 7-11.

If you want to donate, knock yourself out. It’s your money, you can do whatever you want with it. But if you think for one second that someone out there is benefiting from it, you’re very much mistaken. Actually, you’re not…there are several construction companies that make a killing off our school’s stupidity. But if you think you’re helping the Babson pseudo-community, THEN you’re mistaken.

If you’re not convinced at this point, then I have one last point to make, which is probably the most important of any of the points I’ve made to this point: there are much more deserving organizations out there. At least donate to your high school. Or a charity that helps the poor and needy. Or maybe another organization that will use your dollars to directly help those who need it most because there are a lot of people that worry about what they’re going to eat this week or where they’re going to sleep, and they could use your money a lot more than the company that’s going to build the next flag fountain.

This school is way too caught up in itself to consider the people that surround it and ultimately support it. It’s time you made a stand against that. Donating money only pushes them to continue the same way they have been. Save your money at the very least. Or show them by example that people are what matters, and that you care about others the way they should be caring. Until you do, then the school as a whole will never support the people that support it, and we will continue to have places like crapcampus.com because Babson has no idea what the concept of “community” is. If you want better things for future classes, make Babson earn it, and until they do, then your dollars are much better spent at places that really need your money and will use it to its maximum value.

Anyway, if you’d like, I’m also accepting donations that will go towards a reparations fund for seniors for having to deal with all the garbage Babson puts them through. This way they have some extra money when they graduate to start their lives instead of getting bled dry before they make their first dollar in the real world. Let me know if you’re interested.

One thing I’ve been noticing is how many e-mails and/or comments we get that tell us we need to get lives and stop whining. Well, last time I was at the doctor’s office, they took my blood pressure. I saw that it was above zero, which indicated to me that I do, in fact, have a life. So let’s put that baby to bed because after a couple e-mails you start to wonder if you really did wake up from that binger last night.

Now, what the writer(s) probably meant to say was, “get a life that more closely resembles mine.” I figured why not look into it? So I decided to follow a couple of these people around campus all day. Needless to say, it was pretty sad.

I caught up with one girl around lunch time, so I followed her to Trim. While she went inside, I noticed one of the staff members outside scooping up a monster pile of old dog shit behind the dumpster. The staff member proceeded to carry it inside with a big metal spoon. When I got into Trim and saw the girl downstairs, she was waiting in the hot food line. Just as I was approaching the line, none other than the staff member with the spoonful of shit walks in from stage left. Sure enough, the poor girl approached the buffet, and she was rewarded with a top-quality steamer from the staff. Despite gagging on the fumes, she saw the little sign that read “mexican rice,” but dismissed it. After all, if Babson tells you something then why on earth would you ever question it?

With my appetite ruined, I thought I would head over to Map Hill to catch up with our second buddy. I don’t really know who he is, but he lives on the first floor near the entrance. I noticed this guy had some real issues. He was inside sitting down to a nicely-prepared dinner with his girlfriend. The abnormal part came when I noticed his girlfriend apparently never said anything other than the letter “O” and realized she was made of plastic. Meanwhile, two huge guys in orange jumpsuits walked by with big-gulp-sized cups of beer and jailhouse tattoos that said “The elevator must die!” Our friend remained inside enjoying his date. Five minutes later, Map Hill had a freshly broken elevator. Apparently some idiot on the fifth floor though he could be a tough guy and beat up anyone breaking the rules in his hallway, since his throat became the lucky new owner of a whittled-down, sharpened prison toothbrush.

After following these two, I figured I would try one last person. The only problem was that nobody on the entire campus knew who he was, except for one kid that smelled like tomato soup and was wearing a Star Trek outfit. He said he and the other kid were best friends, and that no one else at Babson really understood them except for OCL. He commented on how cool OCL’s events were, like make-your-own-abstinence-poster night.

So with that, I was forced to return home defeated. My sad life of having a job, house, and girlfriend waiting for me after graduation, partying, trying to improve the lives of students at Babson, and generally being a big deal was absolutely nothing in comparison. So I think I might have to scrap the non-life I have right now so I can upgrade to a REAL life.

In case you can’t pick up on sarcasm, this is a completely true story. The people discussed are actual people on campus. Every day, Babson administrators rape your pride. They readily give away their integrity over the dumbest, smallest things imaginable and completely miss the big picture. But as if this weren’t bad enough, they really do convince a large portion of the campus population that their brand of rape is good for them and that it’s their own fault they’re getting raped in the first place.

And what do the students say? “They’re just doing their job” is a popular one. “Stop whining.” “Get a life.” “Babson is what you make of it.” You know what I say? Change your name to Forest Gump because you are officially a mongoloid. Many of us at CrapCampus.com have met personally with many administrators in the past over various issues, and continue to do so. The purpose is to make changes at the school. So we’re trying to make the black hole of happiness called Babson a better place. This blog also helps that goal because MOST of the people on campus feel similarly to us, and yet they initially feel like their opinion is the minority. Erroneous. Make your voices heard. And if some prick tells you to get a life or stop whining, it’s because he’s pissed that his life is a piece of crap and he doesn’t have the balls to stand up for himself.

I say question everything. Give Babson an inch, and they’ll take a mile. If you don’t speak out against them, nothing will change. Already since I’ve joined, the number of writers here has more than doubled. Whether due directly, indirectly, or partly to this movement, this year we’ve got an extra pub day on Friday. We now have electronic and physical feedback forms to easily and anonymously voice your opinion to administrators who have to listen. OCL now reports to Dean Hanno, who is actually a great person to get ahold of if you’re having issues with various departments around campus because he will actually get things done that benefit the big picture. We have a person in SGA that we fully support and that will now have another great medium for getting positive changes made around campus.

So for all the people that want to criticize what we’re doing, eat shit. We’ve made more changes at Babson in a year than you will make in the entire world with your entire pathetic lives. So put that in a bowl with some milk and think twice next time you feel we need to “get a life” and “stop whining.”

Having said that, I would also like to encourage people to try and contribute not only their honest opinions of Babon but also suggestions for improvement. I know we all have been taken advantage of big time by Babson and the administration, and they certainly deserve to get any bad press that comes their way. But the way I see it (and by all means correct me if I’m wrong), the crapcampus.com project is more geared towards making a change at Babson by uniting around a forum where we can share our thoughts, ideas, gripes, and suggestions. After all, the crampcampus.com web site states the following:

“Our goal is not just to make schools look bad. We just want to show what they are really like. Hopefully then they will realize that some things need to change.”

I want to make it clear that I’m NOT discouraging comments in any way. Part of the greatness of the site is your ability to anonymously vent your frustrations about the school, so feel free to blast away. But at the same time, keep in mind that powerful alumni, Babson administrators, and others are also viewing the site, and they can actually make changes in the school. If they show up here and just see a destructive war zone against Babson, then they will likely just write off a lot of our quality thoughts and opinions and try to shut us down. But if we contribute in a way that shows we are organized and have thought things out, then it gives the project a great deal of credibility to influence change. Not to mention if you make some good suggestions, the people in power might come across it and try to make it happen, you just never know.

All I’m saying is to put yourself in Babson’s shoes (I mean after all, that’s basically what we’re asking them to do for us). If someone came up to you and said, for example, “Babson sports suck,” what would you do about it? You probably wouldn’t have any idea where to start. I mean should you get better athletes or rennovate the fields or find new coaches or what? But if someone says, “I hate watching Babson sports because there’s no school support or spirit. They should have a beer tent up at the fields for every home game so we can get drinks, tailgate, and watch the game,” then you might be able to do something about it.

So anyway, that is my two cents. I mean everyone who visits this site has the ability to tear down the Babson world that the administration has created (and which the vast majority of students hate), and I’m definitely encouraging that. But you also have the ability to make your own world up through your thoughts and comments, and I’m definitely encouraging that, too. Granted, the world you create might not get built exactly how you want it to in real life, but contributing constructive ideas might spark others, and changes really will happen.

Ok, so I’ll get down off that soapbox and step onto another one for today’s real blog…

As much as I can’t stand Babson and the way I get treated as one of their customers, I would like to follow my own advice and take a different approach in my blog today. I feel like my complaints would be remiss without any constructive suggestions to follow, so I have decided to chip in with one easy (and cheap) way for Babson to improve the life here at Babson: target Roger’s Pub.

While most people around campus hate the pub, I think it could be a key to a social turnaround at Babson. It gets a terrible rep because of the crowded Thursday nights. I can understand that. I mean how can we have a good time when we can barely walk around, it takes an hour and a half to get our beer from an extremely understaffed bar, and when we do get our beer some tool that’s spitting game at some disgusting swamp donkey spills it all over the place and removes all hope of forgetting, even if just for a couple hours, about this horrid school. Of course that’s not fun.

But there is hope, my friends. Most people don’t realize that the pub is pretty much empty Monday through Wednesday (unless there is a sponsored event, although Wednesdays do tend to attract more Seniors nowadays). Plus, they have either chicken wings or fingers for 25 cents each Monday through Wednesday, and of course they always have the $1 drafts that they have on Thursdays. So you can easily go down there with your friends, enjoy some food, get cheap beers, and watch Monday Night Football or whatever else it is you like to do with your friends.

But that’s not enough. The real problem is Babson doesn’t make good use of the pub. The pub’s hours are bad, the variety of food and drinks is dismal (although I have to admit better than nothing), the entertainment is severely lacking, and–most of all–no one knows or cares about it. So here is my proposal to revamp the pub and make it a place people might want to go to and hang out.

First, add some TVs. There are two small ones by the bar, which is fine. But the “big screen” isn’t that big and is poorly located. It wouldn’t hurt to add a couple TVs near the booths and set them up similar to the bar area because if I’m in a booth I can’t see what’s going on in the game all the way over at the bar. People at pubs need to be able to see the game, it’s a well-known fact, so grab a couple cheap TVs from Wal-Mart.

Second, increase the entertainment. They have that entire back area wide open with nothing in it. There used to be pool tables. Maybe bring one back. Or add another big screen with couches, or another bar. Or a video game setup, or hell even just a jukebox with some more seating area or something would be decent for your normal hanging out purposes. At night, attract more musicians and other acts, even if they’re free, or have open mic nights. But these also rely on my next points.

Open it up for more hours and serve a better variety of food and drinks. We have no late-night food options on campus. So keep the pub open until 2 or something, and serve food and drinks, seems logical enough. Since it’s owned and run by Sodexo, hey, why not let us use our One Cards to buy it? Even exclude the alcoholic drinks from OneCard usage, I don’t care (actually I do care, and I would prefer to use my OneCard to buy beer, but I’m realistic so that point is negotiable). Let people come there for lunch. You can have Sodexo make a bunch of burgers and dogs or something and have a buffet-style spread. You can swipe your card at the door like at Trim and get your food like it’s the organization carnival or something. Have the pub retain similar types of foods like burgers, dogs, wings, fries, grilled cheese, whatever for late night. Even if that’s not available every single night of the week, at LEAST have all that available and be open until 2 over the weekend (i.e. Thursday thru Saturday nights). It also brings up the point of drinks. $1 drafts are awesome, but have a better selection in addition to that and maybe stock a partial liquor bar.

Lastly, get people there. Maybe that’s easier said than done, but if you make the pub better and more like pubs in the real world outside of our Babson bubble, people really will start coming in more often. It’s a simple part of business. If you want people to show up, provide them with a product/service that addresses their needs. Do people need to stop what they’re doing and go to the pub? No, by nature people don’t have to go in there at all, so why are we just hoping that people show up? Be aggressive. Do people need to eat? Yes. Food, I believe, is on the bottom level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, is it not? So hmmm, why not put food there? It certainly gives people more of an incentive to stop by. Entertainment, drinks, they address social acceptance among other needs. Granted, they aren’t as important as the need for food, but if you’re putting all these things together, it will definitely attract people to the pub. Maybe it’s just me, but I remember all this stuff from my IME Marketing class. I guess the admins didn’t take that one yet if they don’t realize these things. My point here is simply that using my suggestions makes logical sense and is attractive to students.

But these suggestions also can appeal to the admins. I mean it COULD be a money-generator for Babson. A guy that works a lot with the Babson budget says suggestions to improve the school are going to be taken more seriously if they can bring in revenues. Well, why do you think people open up bars and clubs all over the place, to lose money? No, obviously some of them are successful and make a profit. Babson, in a way, has got us by the balls when it comes to partying, so they should take advantage of that while making us happy at the same time. I mean look at the circumstances. We have NO late-night food unless we order delivery, which can be expensive. Wellesley is a dry town, so there’s nowhere else to really go party unless you want to drive a while (not that this doesn’t happen or wouldn’t continue to happen with a decent pub on campus, but if you’re given a choice between two equal places and only one of them you can walk to, I think you would choose the one you can walk to on most occasions). Plus, if you’re 21+ and you’re deciding where to drink, would you normally choose cramming into a little suite where you can barely move like you’ve done for 3 years already, or would you choose hanging out at a new, cooler place where you have room to breathe, probably have a better time at, and can pretend like you’re not actually on campus? It seems like a no-brainer to me.

Plus, the foundation is already there. We own a pub, we don’t have to make a new one. We have a full liquor license. The same people that own our dining services own the pub, so it would be very easy to coordinate extending our meal plan and meal services to it. The only thing it would really cost is the price of a few TVs and furniture, the added food and drinks, and the staff for the extra hours. Yeah, it seems like a bit of extra cost, but relative to other things we spend money on, that’s pretty cheap. But unlike other costs at Babson, it’s not like the admins would be sinking funds into the pub. This is an investment. They should be able to turn a profit off their investment, or at the very least break even on it if they follow through with it properly, which down the road can help Babson’s revenue structure (not that the pub is going to chip in enormously by any means, but revenue is revenue and Babson is getting pretty desperate for it).

I would actually like to hear other people’s thoughts on the matter. Personally, I think having a sick pub would make this place a whole lot better, and it could hopefully spurn other changes around here, as well. If you agree or disagree, post comments. Your voice will get heard, and it can help get things done around Babson.

So while I thought about the concept of the phone-a-thon, it crossed my mind that one day someone is going to cold-call me and ask me to donate my money to Babson. Then I felt something wet on my cheek and realized that I was laughing myself to tears about the prospect of donating even a single penny back to this organization. Maybe that’s a bit harsh, but it’s actually a reality for Babson since they have a very hard time trying to get alumni donations. In fact, it’s probably the single biggest problem facing the finance department at Babson. Why? Because believe it or not, our school’s budget this year was covered about 83% by tuition costs. To put that another way, only 17% of the costs Babson will incur this year is covered by alumni donations, either through periodic donations or contributions to the endowment (which is a fund that earns a return, and the college withdraws a chunk of money each year from the fund that is hopefully just less than the return they make).

A big part of the reason for this is the fact that alumni, on average, donate $60k back to Babson. Other schools get average donations of even $650k and more! That’s more than ten times as much!!! Not to mention some of those schools have ten times as many students as we have. So you would think that if one alumnus donated a few million, they would have a lot more people to spread it out over, which would make the average lower. Compare this to our school, and one donation of a few million would be spread out over far fewer people, which should make our average higher than normal. So our crappy $60k donation average is even worse when you think about that.

So the questions are why is this the case and what is to be done? Well, if you’ve ever seen our Babson Strategic Plan, which can be found on the school’s web site, you might notice that the administration claims they are committed to providing not only academic excellence, but also a strong feeling of community. I’ll pause here for a minute so you can let that sink in…

Ok, so moving forward, the first thing you might be wondering is how can they possibly claim to promote a community atmosphere here? If you ask the administration, they would probably not have any specific steps they’ve taken to achieve a community, but they will likely tell you something like this: “We try to instill a feeling of community but can only do so much; the students also have to work at it a little bit.” In other words, they realize there is no actual community and try to pass the blame for it to us.

But my confusion sets in right about now because not only do they fail to promote a community atmosphere, it seems like they are actually working AGAINST having a community. You may also notice in the strategic plan that Babson wants to target an extremely diverse student body in their admissions policy. By diverse we’re not really talking just about race or gender necessarily, it’s more about internationals, out-of-staters, athletes, or any other types of differing interests or demographics. Effectively this makes everyone a minority on campus, which accounts for the various cliques. So really they’re telling us they brought in all these people with completely different interests from one another and since they went through the effort to bring us all here then we are the ones that need to make it work. It’s sort of like Survivor: Babson Edition. Gee, I wonder why we have a lacking sense of community.

But it is not to blame everything entirely on diversity at Babson because diversity can be (and most of the time is) a good thing. We also are segmented into groups according to our relationship to the college. For instance, there’s the administration who runs things however they feel, and too bad if you’re on the short end of the stick. They claim they try to get feedback from us (the students) to improve the school, but they admittedly see us as their customers. Moreover, the way they get feedback is by asking our student government. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never even heard of half the people on the government. The other half ran for office uncontested, so in effect I didn’t even choose the people that are “representing” my opinions to the administration. Obviously my opinions are getting heard.

The most common rebuttal to that is “do something about it.” I want to stab someone’s eye with a fork when I hear that because it’s so annoying. I’m sorry, but I have about 10 million things on my plate during the school year, I’m not about to go all Spartacus and start a Babson revolution or run for student government on top of everything else. Not to mention by the time any changes got implemented I probably would not be around to enjoy them, so my motivation is not very high to mastermind such an effort. Nevertheless, the blog you are reading does happen to be a part of crapcampus.com, which is trying to “do something about it.”

In fact, as a complete side note, crapcampus.com is a great effort in the way that it’s a medium to express our distress as Babson students, and the effort doesn’t have to die when any one of us graduates. It will be a slap in the nuts to the Babson administration for years to come, and there isn’t a thing they can do about it.

But I digress. The point is that I think we can all agree there is very little sense of community, at least in terms of the college in general. It seems to be one group against another, whether through diverse interests or the nature of our relationship to the college. And there are a number of things the administration can do to improve that besides throwing all these different ingredients into the same pot and telling it to boil itself. You still need to stir it and check on it once in a while.

I think the biggest thing they can do is stop cutting corners. When I think about it, I can’t think of any huge things about Babson that really bother me. It’s more a series of little things that add up to a huge mountain. I don’t think I have been through one semester here where I didn’t get hassled over the dumbest crap ever. Usually it was courtesy of Public Safety and/or OCL. But it also bothers me when the finance department says we need to cut back on utility usage in the dorms because that would save the college a lot of money. I say why do I care about that? It won’t lower tuition if we save them money. Not to mention we’re paying about a grand per month to live in places that should cost maybe half that at most. And don’t even get me started on the cost of Trim food. If we live on campus, we’re FORCED to buy a meal plan even if we don’t want it, and we’re not even allowed to take food home with us! So while I’m getting raked over the coals on my living costs at Babson, I’m also supposed to help the school’s budget? That’s like Babson kicking me in the balls and asking for a back rub afterwards. Forget about it.

It also brings us to the awful spending discretion within the administration. Who wants an ugly-ass flagpole “fountain” outside the library? (What the hell is “fountain” about it anyway? That has to be the dumbest thing I ever heard of in my entire life, a freaking flagpole fountain. I need to punch something just thinking about it.) Why do we need to redo the entrances to the school 5 times a year? Why do we need new crosswalk lines installed instead of painted? Why do we need to replace chunks of the cement outside Webster every other week so it look hideous and costs us way more than waiting until it really needs renovation and then repaving the entire area? None of it makes sense. Why do we need to spend so much on that garbage if we’re so pressed for cash? And at the same time I have to crap in a pile of someone else’s old, dried puke from last weekend because we can’t afford the housekeeping people any more. Someone explain the reasoning behind this.

I think all of these things contribute to people spending senior year with one foot out the door already, and when we do get out we look back and say wow my non-Babson buddies had all these awesome times in college, and the highlight of my week was cramming into a tiny, beat-up suite and getting blackout drunk so I can forget about being at Babson and getting raped by the administration for a few hours. Will I be inclined to donate a million dollars down the road? It’s a resounding “no.”

The advocates of Babson will still hang onto their belief of “Babson is as good as you make it.” That’s the biggest copout I have ever heard. Let’s face the facts. Does the social life suck here? Yes, by all standards and especially when compared to the social lives at other schools. Can the administration do something about it? Yes, that is for sure. Can we as students do something about it? Of course we can do some things, too. But the major point to hit here is that they need us more than we need them. We’re their customers. We are now, and we will still be their customers after we graduate. Why? Because we’re their source of income: tuition for now, but even when we graduate they need our donations to function. Otherwise Babson does not exist. So when the overwhelming majority at Babson agrees that the social life sucks, then how can you tell them they’re the ones who should do something about it? I mean Babson is a top-notch education, I don’t think anyone can argue that since we will all graduate with better skills than we would have gotten at pretty much any other college out there. So if we leave here with a bad taste left in our mouths (no doubt a little like rancid eggs and tree bark from getting crapped on for 4 years), a great education, and a high-paying job, do we really care? No, I think we’ll survive just fine. But the one who suffers is the college itself because we’re not giving them donations after we leave. So the burden should be placed on their shoulders to make a change if they want to improve alumni donations.

Probably Step 1 would be for the administration to listen. Obviously they aren’t too thrilled about the crapcampus.com project. But instead of trying to censor us like some kind of dictatorship, they might want to try following their own strategic plan and start creating a community. Maybe common sense would tell them that the existence of a project like this means they need to reevaluate their approach to campus life and their way of treating people. It gives them more than enough reason to do a better job of listening and seeking out what the students really want in their college experience. Maybe bridging that gap could be the first step to actually achieving a community and not just talking about it.

Who knows what could happen if they took just that one little step. Maybe there would be (gasp) open lines of communication. Maybe everyone could work together to make Babson have a strong academic reputation without sacrificing a quality college experience for its students. That sounds an awful lot like a community to me. And I think people that feel more invested in the school while they go there are going to feel more invested when they graduate, as well. Could this logically lead to more alumni donations? That, and maybe even an ILoveOCL.com one day…well, ok, probably not, but I think the college would settle for the increase in donations.

The problem is that everyone at Babson is such a try-hard that it’s impossible to have a good time. Everyone just has to one-up each other everywhere you go. One idiot pops the collar on his magenta polo and then the next has to wear a purple polo on top of his magenta one and pop both collars so we can tell he’s twice as cool. But I can hardly blame the people themselves, it is simply the shitty environment that Babson creates for everyone that is the real problem.

This isn’t to say there aren’t some great people scattered around campus. It’s just that the overwhelming bulk of the people at Babson have their heads up their asses. At least 2/3 of the cars on campus are Audis, BMWs, Mercedes, or some other luxury car. Unbelievably, I have seen more than a few Porches there, too. Honestly, what teen needs a Porsche? But the cars are just a sign of what the people are like on campus. Outside Babson, the BMWs are hot shit, or at least everyone else thinks so, because everyone else is a Honda or a Toyota or a GM. But here at Babson, you’re a BMW surrounded by BMWs so you need to try and pretend that you’re a Porche. But then you’re also surrounded by Porches, so really you need to pretend you’re 2 Porches. How are you supposed to have fun when you’re just trying to be better (or at least as good as) everyone else around you? It’s a constant 1-upping competition. But that’s what Babson values. College is apparently not about enjoying time with friends, partying, and the many other things that normal college students do. Obviously we are bred there to be judged solely on how much ass we can kiss (also known in class as participation grade), and how successful we can at least appear to be in the outside world.

It just baffles me how one school can have such an excellent collection of pompous assholes. It’s funny how our school gets such great marks on quality of teaching, but it’s mediocre at best in terms of job placement. I have to admit if I were the employers, I would think two or three times before hiring any student from Babson. And that’s the moral of this blog is that this school attracts some but produces much more garbage, which it then tries to pass off as actual people. It should start focusing on letting the students enjoy a real college experience. So until next time, I will continue to roll out of bed at 8:10 for my 8:15 classes and show up unshaven with drool still on my face. And I will continue to hate Babson and all its ridiculous try-hards that think the sidewalks are catwalks even at the ass crack of dawn.