It appears that unlike Toledo, you don't have a lot of options when choosing courses here. There are only four graduate courses offered in our department and out of them, I've chosen 2, plus a seminar from Political Science department:
Teaching Sociology
Seminar in Race and Ethnic Relations
Seminar in Political Behavior
I'm more or less happy with the courses I've taken. But when you're in America, freedom of choice matters. Choosing out of only 4 graduate courses, doesn't sound much like a choice. And out of those 4 course, one was Classical Sociological Theory that I had passed last fall in Toledo. Here, the graduate committee (unlike other PhD programs that I know) wouldn't be impressed even if you have passed a course with A. They don't let you run loose and you have to take a proficiency test to waive it or you have to repeat the course no matter what. But maybe that's not the only thing I'm unhappy about.
It appears I'm spoiled at the University of Toledo in different ways. There, our department was located in the University Hall, a Collegiate Gothic building. I felt more or less living in a castle. And other buildings on campus had some elements of Gothic architecture and it felt pleasant to me biking around campus.
Here, our department is located in the ugliest building on campus. It's a very long, featureless, spiritless, depressing building. I've never seen such a long building. To give you an idea, if you walk in the building from one end to another, it'll take you about 5 minutes (3 minutes, if you walk fast). And by the way, if you choose to do this intramural marathon (to stay away from the muggy weather outside), you have to be on the third floor; other floors don't provide you with such a freedom.
First time, I saw the building, I gave it the name longhouse. But still, a longhouse has some communal spirit. This longhouse lacks even that. It doesn't look like academic in its architecture. You find yourself in an administrative or governmental building. And my feeling of unhappiness is intensified when I look at the nice buildings surrounding ours. Although there isn't any consistency in their architecture. You can find all sort of architecture around this campus.
If there's anything I like about the campus, it is its woods and its big lake (we have a big campus even by American standards). You can walk around the lake and relax or enjoy canoing or kayaking for free. And there are some dorms overlooking the lake. Those undergrads living there must be very appreciative about their luck.
And there's something unique about this campus and town. Sometimes you feel you're in a dog land. On some streets in and around campus (sometimes even not so near campus), you see huge dog footprints on the pavement, instead of the normal arrows showing directions. This is one of the major issues I have with American schools. Here, it's not clear which comes first, egg or chicken.
Seriously, is the school for football or vice versa? Many schools are defined and identified by their football team. I think schools, by definition, are primarily institutions of higher education and if they have sport facilities and sporting events, they are mostly extra perks to make life less boring, not the other way around. Sometimes these institutions of higher education go to extremes in defining their identity by their football team and its mascot.
This area found itself a reputation as the Little Egypt for geographical and historical reasons. Read here for more. This led people come up with the idea of choosing Saluki as the mascot for the school's football team. And then, everything was redefined by a football team's mascot. Football fans may feel OK with that. They choose to support their football team and they accept their team's mascot. But what about others who are here primarily for higher education?
In Toledo, we had the same issue. But there, the mascot was more prestigious (or acceptable) for a college. It was a Rocket. And everything was defined around Toledo Rockets. Student ID was Rocket Card. Your employee number was Rocket Number. Even the corner in the Student Union where you got vending machines was called Rocket Fuel (and rightly so). Probably, the only people that would be offended by such a mascot would be peaceniks.
But here, everything is about being a dog. Not just for football fans. For everybody. The computer network (where you check your academic and personal records) is SalukiNet. The campus shuttle (which is as unreliable as Toledo) is Saluki Express. Your calendar is called Dawg Book. Your debit card (and account) is called Debit Dawg. Anything related to IT is called Dawg Bytes (and I wish it were as fast as a dog). Your employee number (and ID) is called Dawg Tag. And above all, the campus core is defined around Saluki Way.
And it doesn't stop just at symbols and mascots. Over one of our orientation sessions, the Dean of Graduate School referred to Saluki as a symbol of endurance, perseverance and stamina. And he recommended us, graduate students to be like a Saluki.
Please. Dogs are cute animals and I love all animals. But I'm a human being, a student. I don't want to be a dog. I want my ID to be just that, a student ID, not a dog tag (or as it's spelled here, Dawg Tag). And as a graduate student, my role model for endurance and perseverance would be a human being, a great scholar, not an animal, however cute and lovely it may look.
Speaking of SalukiNet, it makes me miss our network at UToledo badly. The speed of our network was remarkable (I'd read a report somewhere that Ohio ranks first nationally, when it comes to IT infrastructure of universities). Being used to that speed, I find myself grinding my teeth here.
Sometimes, I find myself thrown back in a time machine to my early years of Internet 15 years ago. Specifically for me as a dedicated customer of libraries anywhere, using resources on the library website is a nerve-racking experience most of the time (even after midnight which is not peak time).
And the network of libraries in Illinois, called I-Share, is not even comparable to what we had in Ohio, OhioLink. Just trying to reserve books on I-Share is a torture (with our turtle-speed network), limitations on the books you can get is another pain in somewhere.
But these things may be minor headaches. This school sounds too liberal for me. In Toledo, I found myself in a more or less liberal atmosphere, but still, I was not inundated with pro-gay and gay-support material. And the city was moderate to liberal. So, the liberal atmosphere on campus was understandable. But here, the area is mostly conservative. And the concentration of churches near campus is really high. Such a level of liberalism in such an area sounds unusual to me (I know of some other liberal campuses amid a sea of conservatism). If I can find time to visit churches around the campus and beyond, I might have interesting observations.
If there's one thing in SIU I definitely prefer over UToledo, it's the ethnic diversity. That's one of the major reasons, I've chosen the US for my graduate studies. In Toledo, we didn't have much variety when it came to international students. Here, I got the chance to meet many students from all over Latin America, Europe and Asia.
Teaching Sociology
Seminar in Race and Ethnic Relations
Seminar in Political Behavior
I'm more or less happy with the courses I've taken. But when you're in America, freedom of choice matters. Choosing out of only 4 graduate courses, doesn't sound much like a choice. And out of those 4 course, one was Classical Sociological Theory that I had passed last fall in Toledo. Here, the graduate committee (unlike other PhD programs that I know) wouldn't be impressed even if you have passed a course with A. They don't let you run loose and you have to take a proficiency test to waive it or you have to repeat the course no matter what. But maybe that's not the only thing I'm unhappy about.
It appears I'm spoiled at the University of Toledo in different ways. There, our department was located in the University Hall, a Collegiate Gothic building. I felt more or less living in a castle. And other buildings on campus had some elements of Gothic architecture and it felt pleasant to me biking around campus.
Here, our department is located in the ugliest building on campus. It's a very long, featureless, spiritless, depressing building. I've never seen such a long building. To give you an idea, if you walk in the building from one end to another, it'll take you about 5 minutes (3 minutes, if you walk fast). And by the way, if you choose to do this intramural marathon (to stay away from the muggy weather outside), you have to be on the third floor; other floors don't provide you with such a freedom.
First time, I saw the building, I gave it the name longhouse. But still, a longhouse has some communal spirit. This longhouse lacks even that. It doesn't look like academic in its architecture. You find yourself in an administrative or governmental building. And my feeling of unhappiness is intensified when I look at the nice buildings surrounding ours. Although there isn't any consistency in their architecture. You can find all sort of architecture around this campus.
If there's anything I like about the campus, it is its woods and its big lake (we have a big campus even by American standards). You can walk around the lake and relax or enjoy canoing or kayaking for free. And there are some dorms overlooking the lake. Those undergrads living there must be very appreciative about their luck.
And there's something unique about this campus and town. Sometimes you feel you're in a dog land. On some streets in and around campus (sometimes even not so near campus), you see huge dog footprints on the pavement, instead of the normal arrows showing directions. This is one of the major issues I have with American schools. Here, it's not clear which comes first, egg or chicken.
Seriously, is the school for football or vice versa? Many schools are defined and identified by their football team. I think schools, by definition, are primarily institutions of higher education and if they have sport facilities and sporting events, they are mostly extra perks to make life less boring, not the other way around. Sometimes these institutions of higher education go to extremes in defining their identity by their football team and its mascot.
This area found itself a reputation as the Little Egypt for geographical and historical reasons. Read here for more. This led people come up with the idea of choosing Saluki as the mascot for the school's football team. And then, everything was redefined by a football team's mascot. Football fans may feel OK with that. They choose to support their football team and they accept their team's mascot. But what about others who are here primarily for higher education?
In Toledo, we had the same issue. But there, the mascot was more prestigious (or acceptable) for a college. It was a Rocket. And everything was defined around Toledo Rockets. Student ID was Rocket Card. Your employee number was Rocket Number. Even the corner in the Student Union where you got vending machines was called Rocket Fuel (and rightly so). Probably, the only people that would be offended by such a mascot would be peaceniks.
But here, everything is about being a dog. Not just for football fans. For everybody. The computer network (where you check your academic and personal records) is SalukiNet. The campus shuttle (which is as unreliable as Toledo) is Saluki Express. Your calendar is called Dawg Book. Your debit card (and account) is called Debit Dawg. Anything related to IT is called Dawg Bytes (and I wish it were as fast as a dog). Your employee number (and ID) is called Dawg Tag. And above all, the campus core is defined around Saluki Way.
And it doesn't stop just at symbols and mascots. Over one of our orientation sessions, the Dean of Graduate School referred to Saluki as a symbol of endurance, perseverance and stamina. And he recommended us, graduate students to be like a Saluki.
Please. Dogs are cute animals and I love all animals. But I'm a human being, a student. I don't want to be a dog. I want my ID to be just that, a student ID, not a dog tag (or as it's spelled here, Dawg Tag). And as a graduate student, my role model for endurance and perseverance would be a human being, a great scholar, not an animal, however cute and lovely it may look.
Speaking of SalukiNet, it makes me miss our network at UToledo badly. The speed of our network was remarkable (I'd read a report somewhere that Ohio ranks first nationally, when it comes to IT infrastructure of universities). Being used to that speed, I find myself grinding my teeth here.
Sometimes, I find myself thrown back in a time machine to my early years of Internet 15 years ago. Specifically for me as a dedicated customer of libraries anywhere, using resources on the library website is a nerve-racking experience most of the time (even after midnight which is not peak time).
And the network of libraries in Illinois, called I-Share, is not even comparable to what we had in Ohio, OhioLink. Just trying to reserve books on I-Share is a torture (with our turtle-speed network), limitations on the books you can get is another pain in somewhere.
But these things may be minor headaches. This school sounds too liberal for me. In Toledo, I found myself in a more or less liberal atmosphere, but still, I was not inundated with pro-gay and gay-support material. And the city was moderate to liberal. So, the liberal atmosphere on campus was understandable. But here, the area is mostly conservative. And the concentration of churches near campus is really high. Such a level of liberalism in such an area sounds unusual to me (I know of some other liberal campuses amid a sea of conservatism). If I can find time to visit churches around the campus and beyond, I might have interesting observations.
If there's one thing in SIU I definitely prefer over UToledo, it's the ethnic diversity. That's one of the major reasons, I've chosen the US for my graduate studies. In Toledo, we didn't have much variety when it came to international students. Here, I got the chance to meet many students from all over Latin America, Europe and Asia.
2 comments:
your right SIU has become a liberal cesspool. I'm not a far right wing guy but I can't stand how biased everything is there. I love the Saluki however :)
Hey, which department are you in? Your blogger profile is inaccessible.
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