Let me begin by saying that I love Elon. Ive been here for 2.5 years. I will represent this school until the day that the good Lord decides to take me to be with my dad.

I should also note that I am an optimistic person, some may even say idealistic. But all in all, I just learn how to take the good in a bad situation.

That doesnt mean that I cant see the bad in a bad situation; I most often try not to acknowledge it with an overly bad attitude that some people who are more cynical prefer to do.

In saying that, I am displeased with the Journalism department in our School of Communications. We are an accredited school of communications among the nations most elite private schools and yet they are doing things that I personally disagree with, specifically the journalism department, since that is the one I am most familiar with.

I love to write. I want to write for a living and I want to be good at it. I want to write for a magazine one day. Elon has a great program that can teach students how to become better writers.

Actually, let me clarify that, so far Elon has only taught me the essentials of being a hard-news, politically, enthusiastically, motivated, international, news journalist or a newspaper writer in most instances.

For class, I have never once been asked to cover an Elon basketball game.

I have never once been asked to go review a play that was on Elons campus. I have never once been asked to go home and evaluate the way other journalists, talk, interview or conduct themselves for the general public, locally or nationally.

I have never once been asked to differentiate the points system in NASCAR versus the points system in football.

I have never once been asked to go to a concert, an opera, a local food restaurant, a movie or other real world news events.

I have, however, been made to believe that if I dont want to write about politics that I am somehow inferior to those who want to write about politics.

Similar to me not wanting to write about politics, take someone who knows nothing about football and make them cover a football game. Or would that be too much on the entertainment side and not traditional enough? Just because something is fun for a person to write about doesnt mean it cant be respectable writing.

Make me a well rounded journalist, not only a traditional journalist.

Keep in mind, this is just my opinion and the vibe I have gotten from various professors in the journalism/communications department.

The most talked about thing in the journalism department is that, Just like in the real world we expect you to be here everyday.

I can agree with that, but also in the real world we are doing a service for our employer for monetary gain. This is not to say that I am in favor of skipping every class.

If esteemed professors and doctors, are going to penalize me for not being in class a certain amount of days, they ought to reward me for having perfect attendance throughout the semester. Even that is a real world ideology.

I have only had one class in which I was rewarded for having perfect attendance [and not the three points on a quiz rewarded, the good kind, the kind that is added to your final grade] and that was not even in the School of Communications where the real world philosophy is hammered in like a rebellious nail.

In the real world if one does not take any sick days, the boss most often notices and compliments you on it, and in many cases will take notice of it and might just get offered a promotion or bonus.

I find it ironic that the internships and jobs that Ive worked say that my writing is great and wonderful and yet the writing that I do for school needs work.

The funny thing is that I fix what needs work and most often the professor finds something else wrong and my grade stays the same.

When one semester a student gives a paper to professor and he gets an A and then next semester gives the same professor the same paper and gets a D, thats a problem.

That is a much different conversation that doesnt have room in this opinion piece, but Im sure many students reading this can relate to the sentence that was just stated before this one. Kind of odd

isnt it?

Oh well. Im not a person that buys into a lot of conspiracy theories.

Im not a person that is going to honestly believe that every professor is out to get students and slash their hopes and dreams by telling them that As are saved for the overachievers and not simply the people who do the work and do it well; even though it seems that way sometimes.

Im the kind of person that does respect authority, so I mean no disrespect. Im just a student who has attended Elon for almost three years and I see aspects of the program that are wrong.

If professors are being pressured into making classes harder not for the sake of learning, but just for the sake of the reputation of the school. I dont want my school to represent itself that way.

Student: Jeremy White 09 - 02/22/07