Entering Year 3, it occurs to me more than ever that I need to know what I am working towards. I realise that the hard work has to begin now.
Most of us are used to being educated in a spoonfeeding culture, and the nature of a communications degree probably has some of us floundering. It is very much a hands on education. We complain, but that is often because it is too easy to do so. We choose to blind ourselves to the vast and prohibitively expensive resources that the school has placed at our disposal, simply because it is easier to pretend we don't know about them, so we don't have to do anything but whine about how the school makes them inaccessible to us.
The thing is, if there is a problem, and you complain about it but you do not lift a single finger to alleviate it, you are part of that problem. And perhaps, you are the problem. An impetus for change will remain an impetus, unless you are willing to roll up your sleeves and start doing the dirty work. Often, we idealise. We see the endpoint, and we see the present situation, and we think that it's a bridge too far. But a bridge spanning a river is not built instantly. It is built plank by plank, nail by nail, in small discrete steps. And these small discrete steps are the ones that really matter. Each step in itself is so small as to be insignificant, but all these steps taken together, and the time and effort invested into them, they eventually form the bridge that joins the problem and its resolution.
The first step is the most difficult, because even at its end, the resolution looks no nearer. But it is. It is nearer, because now you have one plank spanning the chasm where you didn't have one before. And you add a second. And a third after that, till you see the bridge.
It is too easy to blame being spoonfed as the cause of our malaise. Perhaps we are lazy. But we are only as lazy as we allow ourselves to be. And it is easy to stop being lazy. It begins with taking a little more initiative right now.
You might wonder why I have suddenly started to write a self help column. This self help column certainly isn't funny, and I think most self-help books are written to give people short bursts of optimism because they are too lazy to actually make the changes that matter. In other words, I think they are a waste of your money, because the truth is, you are actually too lazy to help yourself.
If people were willing to make the changes that matter, they wouldn't just buy and read a self help book. They would buy ten self help books. They would alter their entire lifestyle, to make sure they got the most benefit out of the books. And they would zealously stick to that routine till it became second nature.
How many of us want to lose weight that bad? How many of us have someone we want to impress that bad? Probably none. We are motivated till the next time we see cheesecake and ice cream and we melt. Humans are not made to be zealots. To be a zealot, you must be more than a little mad. Voldemort is mad. Madonna is Mad, and that's not only because she's hooking up with Jesus. As for me, I eat cheesecake and ice cream.
Okay, the real reason I have written this piece is, I want opinions on how WKWSCI can be improved. I am not stupid enough to believe the school will ever be perfect, but I'm not cynical enough to believe the school cannot be improved either. I have always professed to be a realist, and it's probably because I believe problems are best solved instead of bitching about them.
I have opinions on how this school can be improved, and I think they should be raised to the management of the school. I don't believe the management doesn't want to help. There are individuals working in the school that are committed to helping students. However, because they are not students themselves, they cannot see the issues that really affect us. And it is up to us to help them, or sit by the side whining.
I do not advocate that, because this is my education I am talking about, and I do not want to be the product of an educational experience I could have improved for myself but chose to be lazy and graduate disillusioned. I think most of us would agree.
Some of the changes I would propose are
1) Students being able to make requests for modules that they would be interested in. I don't just mean being able to apply for places in modules already present. I think students should actually be able to band together and request modules that they think are relevant to the education of communication students, and suggest to the school admin that lecturers with the relevant expertise be brought in. For example, I think a module on Internet Journalism is long overdue, given the impact the Internet is having on the journalism scene worldwide.
2) The streamlining of loaning proceedure for filming equipment. The school has lots of equipment that is sitting around not being used simply because students are not taking enough initiative to loan them for independent projects. It is not just the fault of the school, or solely that of the students, but if we make the loaning of equipment a little easier, students might just be more encouraged to pursue independent projects and become better filmmakers.
3) More modules to be opened up for design in advertising. I don't believe advertising is a specialisation that can be best taught in theory. I think our future advertising executives desperately need more opportunities to cut their teeth in design or developing "sticky" advertising taglines and promotional media. And why doesn't anyone let our advertising students develop the advertising and promotions for school events? I would think the best litmus test of the effectiveness of our advertising graduates would be on how they can promote school events to an otherwise disinterested school population. If you can do that, you can advertise to anybody.
These are just some of the changes I feel could be highlighted to the school management. If anyone else is interested in making this school a better institution for everyone, feel free to let me know, or make suggestions. Our school has the advantage of being small, and as a result it is easier to enact changes to our immediate environment. I sincerely believe that with more interaction in an environment where the students and management actually get each other, we will eventually have a better programme, and better students.