You have some decisions to make, and you have to make them very soon, if you haven't yet. And one thing we here at Gordon College know from experience is that many of you have not.
So here is the question: Have you decided if you will be here next year? How about next semester? How about for finals of this semester? Will you get all you can out of your time here?
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| Gordon College President Lawrence Weill |
At this point, you believe you already made these decisions. You have come to Gordon and moved into the residence halls or driven down all this past week-and-a-half, and you have bought books, listened to lectures, been to lab, and done all of the things that look like making these decisions. But most of you really haven't. You may WANT to be here next year, but wanting and making the hard decisions are not the same thing. Deciding means to come to a conclusion, to make up your mind as to what shall be done and the way to do it. And the main reason you have not come to this decision, is you don't have the tools to decide yet.
That is what this convocation is all about. This is the fourth annual President's Convocation, and we began this custom, or I should say, revived it, since convocations at colleges are in fact a very old tradition, to help you see that you needed to come to some realizations. The faculty has marched in here in our robes and academic hoods in part to impress upon you that you are doing something you have never done before, despite the fact that you think you are doing something you have done for some 12 years now. You are not going to school. You are attending college. The two things are related, yet quite different from each other.
The scholastic experiences you have had up until now will be, we hope, a foundation for you, a starting point for your new undertaking here at Gordon College. The writing and history and algebra that you had in high school are a backdrop for your collegiate studies.
But college is different. And that is what you need to know before you can decide if you will still be here, if you will be successful at Gordon College. And I want to assure you that we firmly believe each of you CAN be successful here. But we also know that many of you will not be simply because you will not decide to be, at least not in time to head off falling so far behind that you cannot make up the ground you have lost.
So how is college so different? Aren't you all students and these good folks here teachers? Aren't there papers to write and tests to take and textbooks to read, just like when you were in high school? It's true -- we use the same language across the lines of education. Perhaps that is why the confusion is there in new college students. Or perhaps it's because you have been successful using the tools you have developed up until now. You have graduated from high school, after all. And you made at least C's in most of your classes, and usually made B's and A's as well. How different could college be? Or maybe it's because no one told you it would be different. That's why we are here, to tell you that it is in fact different from what you have done before, and to help you make the decision to be successful.
The first and most important realization you need to have is couched in the very notion of this talk -- that you must decide to be successful. Notice that when you make the decision, the responsibility lies within you. That is a critical concept. You must take responsibility for your learning. How do you do that? Well, in part it means giving up some of the tricks you have learned from the past, the coping mechanisms that you have developed to maneuver through schools. You know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the excuses for late papers, the stories for why you missed class, the tardies, the last-minute study habits, all the tools you used to slip through the school system when you encountered difficulties. I want to impress upon you that these great professors simply do not play that game. When you rush through a paper because you procrastinated, you will not automatically be given a rewrite opportunity. There will not be extra credit assignments because you didn't keep up with the reading and tried to cram at the last minute. They will expect your best work at all times -- in fact, I insist that they do just that, because I know that challenging you to do more than you thought you could means you will have a much better academic experience here.
So what can you do to decide to succeed? First of all, decide to attend every class. This is the biggest mistake we see new freshman commit. Mom and Dad aren't around to wake you up or to make you leave your room. Some faculty may not take attendance. It is very easy to begin to think -- hey, I don't need to go to class today. I've got a friend in class and I'll just get her notes and instead, I'll go do something else. But what we know from experience is that this is a recipe for failure. Students who miss class fare worse than those who attend. Ask your professors; they'll tell you. If you miss class, you miss important lessons, lessons that you cannot get on your own. That's not to say you should come to class when you are ill: you should not. But save those absences for when you really are sick, or you will find yourself falling farther and farther behind.
But merely attending class is not enough. You have to be prepared when you get there. You have received a syllabus for every one of your classes. Use that syllabus as your guide to the readings and assignments and stay ahead of the class. Reading afterwards is a very poor substitute and will lead to very poor performance. Read ahead and participate in classroom discussions. Ask questions. One thing that I have discovered in my years of teaching is that students who don't read the assignment don't ask questions, unsure, I suppose, if they were asking a "stupid question." Read and ask questions. And when you do that, you're going to find out something important: these professors are very interesting, very smart, enthusiastic, and eager. Engage them in discussions about their subjects and you will learn why they love their disciplines and why they love to teach.
And finally, make the decision to enjoy college. Going to college should be a transforming endeavor, a time when your life is forever changed. A great deal of that involves your classroom experiences, but an awfully lot has to do with experiences outside the classroom as well. We have so many opportunities for you to extend your college career. There are concerts and recitals, from classical music to popular music. There will be great theatrical performances and art displays. Go to the soccer games and baseball games or whatever sport you enjoy. Personally, I love basketball, and I have made the decision to attend as many games as I can. Join a club. Go to the coffee house. Become a member of SGA and attend student activities. Give yourself the chance to truly experience college, and you will love it, and it will change your life.
So there it is: will you get the most out of your time here? Will you succeed? Will you be here next year? Will you allow yourself to be transformed? The choice is yours.