Ren McCormack - Please Come to SMC, Please!
In 1984, Paramount released the movie “Footloose,” the story of Ren McCormack (Kevin Bacon), a streetsmart teenager from the big city whose family moves to Bomont, an earnest little Oklahoma town, whose elders years earlier had banned any kind of public dancing. Under the inspired leadership of Ren in challenging the statute, his peers rise up and assert their right to dance. Bomont is an apt metaphor for SMC now - before the arrival of Ren.
Many people, probably most, come to Santa Monica College because of the acclaimed quality of its instruction (for a California community college) and the advantage they’ll receive due to its ranking as a premier transfer-school to 4-year universities. That’s the leading marketing pitch, the mantra repeated ad-nauseam. You’ve heard it, over and over and over and over. Significant numbers of students succumb to that appeal.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate these facts and they are primarily why I came. The faculty here are generally (in my experience) committed, and stellar at what they bring. But as an older and returning student, I’ve grown increasingly aware of something critical that’s missing, something relatively non-existent at SMC and that is any sense of "COMMUNITY."
SMC’s population can be divided into four constituencies:
- 30,727 students (as of fall 2005, which is down from a peak of 34,032 in fall 2002, but down in spring 2006),
- 1309 faculty (314 full-time and 995 part-time as of Sept. 2005)
- (approx.) classified employees
- 80 (approx.) administrative personnel
Part of the problem is that the structure of SMC’s culture is so singularly focused on academics and prepping students’ resumes to appeal to the next educational destination, in a hurried-up and tunnel-visioned obsession to hone students (parts) to efficiently fit into the global economic machine, that the college truly neglects the life-side of things along the way. There is no sense that, as adults, we are all in this thing together. It is more like the students are over here, and the adults are over there. Ever experienced that?
As a consequence, there remains an overwhelming disconnect between the constituencies, and particularly between students and everyone else. The value of play, too, has been de-legitimized, though allowed within the hyper-controlled constraints of rules governing official club activities or Associated Student-sponsored events.
Remember when you were in high school, when there were school assemblies, dances, sporting events and those arenas were filled with people - your friends, fellow students, family, and campus staff?
Remember when you were a Tiger, a Gaucho, a Lion, an Amoeba, a Viking, a Trojan, a Hippopotamus, a Warrior, a Worm, or whatever, and your identification with that mattered and further contributed to your sense of identity, as a member of that community? SMC has a mascot. Know what it is?
Now think about the last SMC school assembly you attended, where someone talked or performed? I hate to miss em’, don’t you?< How about those pick-up basketball games you play between or after classes?
How about the central activities center(s) where students congregate to dance, hear the “spoken word”, and otherwise play?
Other than during classes, or the relatively rare faculty participant in a club, find much time, do you, to “kick it”with professors?
Isn’t it incredible how the stands of our large sports arena are packed with spectators for football, track, and soccer competitions? Building a bigger stadium is obviously a no-brainer, you know, to deal with the demand.
The collaboration between the political science, scriptwriting, and drama departments that has resulted in ongoing and unexpectedly spontaneous street-theatre around the campus is exhilarating to witness. How those dramas, satires and comedies pique the imagination and stimulate critical thinking, even after the actors evaporate back into the crowd.
What about the SMC community softball league including men and women from all campus groups - students, faculty, classified and administration - been enjoying that have you? I think we should hook-up the photography and graphics departments to generate baseball trading cards to commemorate the players. I am so collecting them all.
And let’s not forget how the Associated Students leaders,…eh officeholders, organize such exciting on-campus events or invite a relentless stream of compelling speakers to come inspire, empower and teach student…and then advertise the occasions so well…allowing for massive student turnouts…it leaves one…speechless.
And speaking of the current Associated Students board of directors, who can question their commitment to serving the student body? Their weekly meetings are packed with students excited about witnessing a credible student government in action. Parliamentary procedure and the Brown Act have been mastered by these folks. You can really feel the directors are there to serve the students, instead of acting like A.S. is just another campus club - only with a real big budget.
I’m so down with seeing student and faculty musicians coming together regularly for impromptu jam sessions which are amazingly frequented by everyone. They need to build a bigger venue cause’ there’s not enough room for all the fans.
Who knew there was so much talent, and that we could prioritize the time and opportunity to enjoy it in addition to the rigors of education?
And those panel discussions where representatives from all constituencies square off over the outrageous issues of the day - how compelling and life-affirming have those been? I learn so much from those and am blown away how people walk out debating each other.
Isn’t it great how all these things have brought us together, to share and connect, to celebrate that living is in the life connections we have, above and beyond everything else?
And don’t forget the school’s coverage of all these things - especially on its immediately up-to-date website (Give those people who do it a reward!) - and how people can’t wait to pick up the school paper to devour timely and well-written stories about what happened and what’s next on tap.
Oh wait, I’m so sorry. WTF what was I thinking. (Was that a drug flashback I just had? Jeez!) Again, sorry. None of what I above described actually exists at SMC, does it?
Why not?
Most of these fantasies would probably be an overwhelming challenge to pull off because people in charge forgot that the one-trick-pony of academics is not the alpha and omega of life; people in charge forgot that a balanced life is critical to psychic health and the overall appreciation of life; and people in charge actually have really low expectations for students about anything outside of academics.
Perhaps a program that conditions and indoctrinates students to go along willingly, like lemmings, in quiescent acceptance of "the program" is the necessary pre-condition for students to safely segue into the world. Don’t rock the boat, you know?
Perhaps it would be just a little too scary if students were truly empowered?
Well, that’s okay, I mean, isn’t it?
Just go along with the plan, don’t rock the boat, just be polite, be obedient and comply with what the “school” suggests (Yes, you may technically be an “adult,” but again, you can’t have missed the “in loco parentis” - Latin, for “in the place of the parent” - attitude that comes at you from so many “college personnel” at SMC. More on this in another post.), finish your IGETSE requirements, transfer, finish up those college years, and then, you can really begin to live.
Why live along the way?
After all, no one at your young age ever accomplished anything important until they finished college. Isn’t that correct?
The world can wait, can’t it?
Nothing is really happening on the planet that you really need to pay attention to anyway.
And besides, the important thing is the destination, right? Not the journey.
Well wait, let me just reconsider. Is that true? Remember, I’m still coming off that little flashback, so I’m kinda unsteady here.
Who cares about all this, some will ask?
You should, because the planet right now is an increasingly dangerous and struggling battlefield over which ruling worldview will prevail, which paradigm will govern.
The past world wars notwithstanding, the stakes have never been higher, and never on a scale that has literally included the entire planet. Things are not looking up for the majority of mankind.
Thus far, the hydra of an unquenchable, neo-liberal, exploitive, and dehumanizing economic machine is in the ascendance.
You should be very concerned because human beings are not machine parts, and your unwitting willingness to complacently find where your individual “part” fits only adds to a collective disaster for the quality of life of the entire planet.
You must rethink your participation towards community and away from being another cog in the machine.
Your very survival, in your lifetime, will most probably depend on developing a much greater sense of community, wherever you are. And it will only be in the community, as opposed to the notion of the “rugged individual” who imagines he/she can go it alone, where we will find salvation.
We need to awaken the community that sleeps at Santa Monica College, for so many reasons.
We need to awaken the community of mankind so that it takes back the planet from the prevailing corporate values that precedes all else, and is hurtling life as we know it headlong towards perilous ends.
But to awaken that community, we must start locally. And for the citizens of SMC, our campus is that place.
Wake up.
PS: SMC’s mascot is the “CORSAIR.” A corsair is a pirate. Pirates were/are known for kidnapping, murder, thievery, sabotage, rape - and those were their good qualities. Great mascot, huh? Really something to identify with. The Siege will get to this issue later.
March 16th, 2006 at 6:25 am
Excellent site!! Dude, you so nailed what happens at this place. Maybe you, or someone, could talk about problems that students have with some of the SMC police. Just an idea. I’ll definitely be checking back in.