Students who hate pulling out their phone or logging in to a computer for campus announcements, fret no more: we’re bringing the onslaught to you.
Earlier this week, flat panel displays went up in Lane, Kendall, and Mossey Library. Presumably, they’ll to be used as scrolling billboards like those in the Dow Center or Grewcock Student Union. While it’s important that liberal institutions such as Hillsdale College engage with the modern, technology-saturated world, it’s even more imperative that we don’t allow that goal to contaminate our primary mission.
We may brush off Dr. Whalen’s talk at the beginning of freshman year, but that doesn’t diminish the fact: education is indeed serious business. These displays clash with the traditional aesthetics of the classroom buildings and the gravitas they add to our program.
They also pose a distraction for students attempting to study there. Imagine this: you are sitting in the library trying to focus on a paper. Instead of merely glancing at the clock, your mind could inadvertently leap to a color montage of potentially irrelevant information and mediocre graphic design across the room. Student Ambassadors may soon experience the irony of touting Hillsdale’s small class sizes and emphasis on writing and the Great Books while standing beneath the LED glow of modernity.
If the Student Union is any indicator, students often ignore these displays entirely over time anyways, defeating the goal of effective communication. Many of us are guilty of using our own computers or smartphones rather than actually studying in these spaces more often than we should, but there still is a dignified air about this campus and what we do here. Professors still become irked at cell phones in classrooms, and some students have the good sense to get off of Facebook when deadlines roll around.
These displays may not singlehandedly undermine the liberal arts, but traditional aesthetics and a scholarly atmosphere are important and worth preserving. If Hillsdale students are going to amuse ourselves to death like everyone else, let’s at least do it discretely and not prominently in the Lane and Kendall lobbies for the visiting world to see.
