Senior meeting turnout reveals pre-grad jitters
Alison Doherty
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Opinions
It was obvious from the multiple e-mails flooding seniors' inboxes that everyone at the CDO and in the Class Deans Office expected Smith's seniors to simply delete the messages without reading them, or perhaps open the e-mails but decide not to brave the harsh winter winds. Time, date and location were included in the subject lines. Buzz words like "graduation," "jobs," "graduate school" and - most importantly - "doughnuts and cider" were included as incitements. Maybe it was the fact that the doughnuts were local, but seniors attended the meeting in hoards, overwhelming the small venue of the Neilson Browsing Room as well as the evening's speakers.
I, however, doubt it was the doughnuts. Instead, I think the impressive showing of seniors - which one of the speakers guessed was almost the entire senior class - can be attributed to a huge bump in the anxiety seniors feel about leaving Smith, likely from the constant media focus on the terrible job market combined with watching past graduates still trying to get work or give up and apply for graduate school.
We now are being inundated with the message that no matter how hard we work, our immediate future looks bleak. Hard work, which got us into Smith in the first place, may for the first time fail. All this is piled on the normal stress of preparing to leave college, many of us facing our first year out of school since effectively mastering potty training.
Not only must we face the strangeness of not going to school, but we must also come to terms with effectively being labeled adults by society. If that's not enough to make someone attend an hour-long meeting, I don't know what is.
The event organizers should not be blamed for being surprised by the number of attendees; last year's event only had 18 students show up. Senior class president Katie Clark and representatives of the CDO handled the large size effectively, stressing upcoming events and suggesting a visit to the CDO no matter where you are at in the job search. Other speakers floundered, not knowing what to summarize and what to expand on. The lack of microphones did not help matters.
I, however, doubt it was the doughnuts. Instead, I think the impressive showing of seniors - which one of the speakers guessed was almost the entire senior class - can be attributed to a huge bump in the anxiety seniors feel about leaving Smith, likely from the constant media focus on the terrible job market combined with watching past graduates still trying to get work or give up and apply for graduate school.
We now are being inundated with the message that no matter how hard we work, our immediate future looks bleak. Hard work, which got us into Smith in the first place, may for the first time fail. All this is piled on the normal stress of preparing to leave college, many of us facing our first year out of school since effectively mastering potty training.
Not only must we face the strangeness of not going to school, but we must also come to terms with effectively being labeled adults by society. If that's not enough to make someone attend an hour-long meeting, I don't know what is.
The event organizers should not be blamed for being surprised by the number of attendees; last year's event only had 18 students show up. Senior class president Katie Clark and representatives of the CDO handled the large size effectively, stressing upcoming events and suggesting a visit to the CDO no matter where you are at in the job search. Other speakers floundered, not knowing what to summarize and what to expand on. The lack of microphones did not help matters.
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