An Ode to my Alma Mater

A couple of weeks ago, I posted this picture of my name on the University of Arkansas senior walk to my Facebook page. It got lots of positive feedback, even though I was really posting for my enjoyment: all that work to earn an undergraduate degree and a decent portfolio...and here it is "etched in stone." Then one of my friends responded a few days later with "April, I love you but when I saw your 'etched in stone' pic, I wanted to throw up."

There are plenty of things that can go wrong on any campus. My experience as an employee has been vastly different from my experience as a student- and each of those came with good & bad experiences, like all other things in life. Unfortunately, this friend has a reason to especially despise the University. And I just have to say that I'm not simply wearing some rose-colored glasses around here.

This week, I've been logging extra, extra miles of walking because I can't renew my parking permit. Until now, I've had a faculty yellow zone sticker, which affords me a parking space at a reasonable distance.

However, currently I don't qualify as a "faculty/staff" member or a "student," even though you could say I'm both.

I work 40 hours a week on campus. I have for a long time. These days, those 40 hours are split evenly between two offices. Last year, they were split between even more offices.

I'm not eligible for health insurance, retirement matching or any of the benefits that "real" University employees supposedly get.

Now that I've been offered free tuition, I'm waiting on the denial or acceptance of my graduate school application packet. Until I know, I'm neither a "fully-appointed" employee" or a "student eligible to be enrolled." Which means I can't even park legally anywhere near my office without paying a ton.

Yesterday I walked three miles just getting from one office to the next and to lunch.

~

All that considered, I'm still glad I went to the U of A for my undergraduate degree.

Just because it can be very frustrating to work for an organization that only sees you as employee 50439852089485 who is not eligible for benefits, doesn't mean that I didn't do my best as a student, enjoy my writing workshops, learn some great skills, make helpful connections, or even enjoy my time here. And it doesn't mean that I don't like my job. I'm grateful, and lucky to get to do something I enjoy.

When I arrived on campus as a student, I immediately felt more comfortable on campus to do my best work. It wasn't stifling as one campus I'd lived on, where I constantly had someone looking over my shoulder (even though I did nothing but study and practice music there) and it challenged me more than the summer courses I took on another campus. What's more, it's relatively close to home. As a 17-yr-old high school graduate who was strongly encouraged by family to stay in-state, this was the best possible option for me.

The U of A gave me the resources to turn my writing into an effective, marketable tool.

It felt like a long, tedious process some days, but I worked hard, enjoyed what I was doing and met a lot of interesting people. The professors in print journalism have gone out of their way to help me a number of times and in recent years I've done the same for them.

This campus is a good place to continue your education and make the connection from your hopes and dreams to something to use in the real world.

And even if your university gained a bad reputation along the way for incidents like those of Penn State, is that really a reason to discredit all the other people who continue their dedication to their subject, who are hard-working, intelligent and helping those around them? Shouldn't they be proud of their work anyway?