all this hassle
So, I was headed to the official campus B&N in order to gossip about my latest peccadilloes with a friend and colleague, and I noticed something in the bookstore window that kind of set me off: a number of tee shirts emblazoned with the legend “All This Hassle for a Tassel,” then marking the graduation year of 2009.
I think the sentiment expressed in awful enough: for one thing, while it is true and problematic that university life is bound by bureaucracy at many levels, and while it is true that university study is often stressful and frustrating, I think it is immensely inappropriate for the university’s Board of Governors (or whoever is in charge of licensing the use of university insignia) to allow university images to be associated with that sentiment. The university should not be in the business of encouraging students to think of its rules, structures, and guidelines as a hassle.
I think the other part of the phrase (the tassel) is equally egregious, if not moreso. What this little rhyme does is suggest thatthe end product of a university education is nothing more than signifier of having completed four years of hassle and frustration. In a university like my own, which has struggled for many years with low retention rates, an equation between education and a hassle is ethically unconscionable, at least to the extent that our (much-touted) Urban Mission charges us with the work of reaching out to and assisting those students at the greatest risk of falling prey to the “all this hassle” mindset. Moreover, I believe this is also part and parcel of the trend toward vocationalization of the university, which is a problem I’m still very much invested in working through at the theoretical and pedagogical levels.
Grr! All this dirt for a shirt.
Filed Under feelings & junk, profession, wayne state, wtfComments
7 Responses to “all this hassle”
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O, wherefore art thou my cynical friend?
Although the licensing is in poor taste, I fear it’s an honest sentiment about the current job market. After all, here I am with a pair of tassels and on my way to a third, and I spent 5 months unemployed. Not only that, but the tassels I had accumulated prevented me from getting any kind of underemployment, like waiting tables or working retail.
The mythos in American culture is that if you work hard and get your degree then you’ll be successful. And yet, with unemployment super high and more and more college graduates taking unpaid internship after unpaid internship just to get some experience, it seems that the length of time between matriculation and financial viability is getting longer and longer.
So, in as poor taste as it is, there’s a good chance that a lot of students who graduate will have not much more to show for it for a while than their tassel hanging from their rear-view mirror as they drive to the part-time job they worked as a college student.
I take your point, ED, but the economic reality behind higher education is secondary to the rhetoric here (in this post, I mean). This is part of an ongoing project I’m thinking of calling “Rhetoric in/of the University.” It’s in very early stages though.
Mmmm…my rhetorical proclivities never really extended past, “Guess what? Chicken butt!” Occasionally, I can get to, “Guess why? Chicken thigh!”
But, out on a limb here, couldn’t you say that the rhetoric of the tee shirt issues directly from the current economic climate? Further, can you not also say that the disillusionment the slogan represents is a piercing of the rhetorical veil that drives young people to universities with pretty fairy tales about soaring to the highest echelons of middle management based on the time spent in pursuit of a golden tassel? Mmm, I think I recognize that flavor…
I don’t know, M…haven’t you found that the students already embody this idea that completing university is a hassle? I mean, really, there is only a very small percentage in any given undergrad class that actually takes their own education seriously in the altruistic sense. The university is already in ruins, as the book says, in terms of going away from excellence in true education, and into more of another kind of excellence: the get ‘em in, get their money, get ‘em to specialize (vocationalize as you call it) and get ‘em out! Why should anyone take it seriously anymore when everyone’s goal is the same: graduate them, don’t focus on educating them. That’s the sad reality, especially in your school, my former school.
Plus, what about that ole amendment about free speech…do you really think those t-shirts should be censored just because you don’t agree with it?!
CS, I agree that the university is in ruins, students are disaffected, the emphasis on is on vocationalization, etc. That’s exactly my point though: the university itself, by licensing its insignia for use on these tees, is implicitly offering its approval to that mindset. That’s what I really take issue with here: the university should be trying to counteract that mindset, not give it license and approval. If the university has any hope of being restored, it has an obligation at every level to work against the inculcation of the idea of education as a burden or hassle. To see the board of governors (or whoever) license university insignia for this tee implicitly endorses this idea — which I think works against the university’s best interest.
I don’t think either that I’m calling for these tees to be censored. As my post notes, yes, there is a lot of hassle in university study; I’m not denying that. I think people should have the right to wear them as a critique of the bureaucracy if they wish. But you and I both know that the tees won’t be worn as a critique, and to that extent, I think its inappropriate for the school’s official imagery (which are sold in the official campus bookstore) to be tied to this message of education as a hassle. You wouldn’t want to see a tee that said something like “Wayne State: Women are All Hos” or something with a big Warrior logo on it, would you? The university shouldn’t be endorsing that idea either, but if someone wanted to wear a tee that said that (without school insignia), we’d be obliged by our first amendment commitments to at least respect the wearer’s right to wear it. I feel the same about these tees: the sentiment is valid (if problematic to me), the students or whoever have a right to wear them, but the university should not be endorsing this message that encourages the defamation of university education.
The entire time I was reading through this post and these comments I had a certain Alice Cooper song in mind.
I think the sentiment that the shirt expresses is kind of bogue, especially considering it provides a pretty honest assessment of how many students see college as merely a means to a professional end. But, though I agree with your concern I think it a little problematic that you are working in your final comment to disassociate the image entity from the expressive space:
“the university shouldn’t be endorsing that idea either, but if someone wanted to wear a tee that said that (without school insignia), we’d be obliged by our first amendment commitments to at least respect the wearer’s right to wear it.”
I just think there is an idea here that becomes a little problematic when you look at it with a bigger picture perspective. Not to say that you haven’t considered this, but what does this say about the complex issues surrounding property ownership and licensing issues?
Also, part of me wants to read this as the type of simpleton statement that one endearingly makes about any partner. It kind of reminds me of the stuff my dad says about my mom when she isn’t around. He says it as more of appeal to mainstream notions of how one talks about a spouse, not as an honest assessment of personal experience. Perhaps this is somewhat the same. Here, instead of an exasperated “Women,” one might hear something like “College.”
I like your t-shirt idea, actually. I’ll take it a bit further:
Wayne State: Our Hos are in the Knows
ha!
But seriously, I do agree that Wayne State shouldn’t be perpetuating that sentiment so endorsing the t-shirts is ridiculous on many levels. But then again, I see Wayne State as an institution that generally doesn’t care about education anyway. I had so many students who were on academic probation for 2+ years, and still failing, and yet Wayne State still kept taking their tuition dollars. They don’t care. So them being so verbal about it isn’t the least bit surprising to me. It’s disturbing and it’s also one of the reasons I’m not there anymore.