Why can't we all hear voices?
Joanna Mikulski
Tuesday Voice on Friday
I often feel overwhelmed by expectations and opinions. I remember one e-mail from the office of Dean Roche sent to all sophomores and juniors within the College of Arts and Letters this fall. It detailed a list of options that students should pursue "to achieve their academic and career goals." I read the letter, somewhat panicked and anxious. It offered useful advice. I think that I decided then to rebel, to avoid the academic-internship scene and to waitress at the Jersey shore this summer.
In a constant stream of noise, professors, administrators, advisors and other students offer their views on how all students and I should think, believe, act and live. As a writer for this newspaper, I myself contribute to this confusion.
We hear strong suggestions regarding not only what jobs we should pursue and what academic roads we should follow, but also what ideas we should cling to and which beliefs we should promote. Many times these voices that shout at us uphold the same beliefs and ideals; other times, these voices contradict each other. Students, like myself, are challenged to decide, from among or outside them which voice is their own.
Most days, I have only a vague conception of my "voice" — little idea of what I believe, what road I want to take in life and what ideas I want to uphold. Yet, I have a good idea of what I do not believe, what road I do not want to take and what ideas I do not want to uphold. In my search, beliefs, values and ideas that contradict my own have proven more useful than those that compel me to nod with agreement.
Viewpoints that challenge, offend or destroy my own perspective have opened my mind and led me to think with honesty and seriousness.
I have often discovered who I am not and what I do not want before I have discerned who I am.
In this sense, contradictory voices that can confuse and frustrate students serve a necessary function. However, at this university, the voices that shout at students too frequently convey the same message — uphold the same values. Without a city encroaching on the campus, little of the "real world" with its controversy and its non-Catholic understanding infiltrates the University community and the lives of students.
Until I brought a car to school this semester, I could not travel beyond Grape Road into the South Bend-Mishawaka area without getting lost. Freshman year I saw little outside of the immediate area around my dorm and class buildings.
In this bubble, administrators and professors have an inordinate amount of influence over the ideas and beliefs given voice on campus.
The greater the degree to which the viewpoints and ideas heard on campus are restricted, the greater the likelihood that dialogue on campus will be reduced to a black and white issue. Students, for example, would choose either to stand with or to stand against the conception of faith that the University upholds.
To ensure that students remain in a true dialogue with the Catholic values supported by this University, all administrators and officers should work to give all controversial beliefs and viewpoints a "voice" on campus.
The showing of plays, like the one currently under debate that some within the community find challenging and insulting, does not threaten the values of the University community, but instead increases the student's understanding of them.
The University should continue to increase the diversity of "voices" on campus. It would further help students, like myself, discover new ways to believe and to think and new conceptions of the way to live life.
It would help us discover who we aren't.
Joanna Mikulski is a junior English and German major. Her column appears every other Friday. Contact Mikulski at mikulski.1@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Friday, February 22, 2002
