Opinions

By Kenneth Jeruchim 
and Mayuran Tiruchelvam

One of us has merely a few weeks before graduation. For the other, three years of time at Wesleyan remain. We write from two distinct perspectives. Yet together we are aware that as classes come and go, the enterprise of being students at Wesleyan continues. However, both of us are left wondering what this experience is. While many of us have found a niche here, or may feel part of a group of friends, is there a greater, non-institutional, spirit of community between students? In some instances, we believe that the answer to this question may be yes. At other times, we are not so certain. We would like to offer a few suggestions for how we students and staff may feel more communally united.

There are rights and there are responsibilities. While the two are not mutually exclusive, at times focusing on one leaves little room for the other. We have many rights as students of Wesleyan living in the United States. We may go to class or not go to class, we may have consensual sex how and when desired, we may use drugs and alcohol at will, we choose our own bedtime. Our lives are not only framed by the rights we feel are due to us, but by threats to our rights ñ most notably the academic work we must to do to attain our projected level of satisfaction (whether high or low). We would not call these threats responsibilities but demands because they make requests of us as individuals, rather than as members of groups. Considering your life in these terms comes down to: how can I get my work done, so I can have an open schedule to do what I want (or feel I need) to do - whatever that may be.

Conversely, we could think about our lives in terms of responsibilities. Responsibilities are those activities which are in some sense inherently social. Unlike rights, they are not measured by what a person individually can or cannot do, but by the extent to which we act out of a sense of engagement with others. It is responsibility, also read community, that we feel is sometimes absent from Wesleyan. Not that students aren’t active. But sometimes we do not engage with each other. It is as if our peers did not exist. We will not confront one another because we are afraid of saying something offensive, or perhaps out of a sense of not wanting to get involved, or maybe from the fear of how we will be perceived. But, it may be better to be angry at each other, than individually detached. Considering our social and academic lives in these terms, we are involved in debate. We care less about rights, and more about the deliberation and the others involved in it. Even when the exchange becomes fierce, it is still communal.

Community is not something that can be forced. We do not expect everyone to feel entirely connected and understood by others. We do not have rigid expectations for how Wesleyan should be. We merely hope that the fear of confrontation be abated.

Jeruchim is a member of the class of 2000. Tiruchelvam is a member of the class of 2003.