Walla Walla University - Mountain Ash Yearbook (College Place, WA)

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academics real goal. The sheer practicality of attending college as a means of find¬ ing an ambitious, educated spouse who will one day enter the work force at a higher wage rate is often overlooked. Consequently, the student spends a great deal of time taking classes that do not further this ambition. Fart of becoming an academic is honestly evaluating one’s goals. Degrees are nice things to get after spending a long time in college; I hope for one myself. However, if the student really isn’t as interested in getting a degree as he is in finding a mate, he should devote a greater propor¬ tion of time to social functions than he would if he was primarily interested in getting a degree. No matter what reason the potential academic may have for coming to college, he must honestly evaluate his goals, and then work toward Suppose, now, that the student has accrued enough wealth to come to, and stay in, college. Sup¬ pose also that he has organized himself, become acquainted with his resources, has developed a balanced lifestyle, has evaluated his goals and worked toward them, and has now graduated, a full- fledged academic. What now? That depends on what his goals are. The process of education is, after all, to prepare the student for future life. One’s academic career is only a means to an end. The whole point of college is to broaden the student’s options. If, after however many years of college you choose to take, you choose to go back to your hometown and clean restrooms in gas stations, you will still have benefited from col¬ lege. Chances are, you will have chosen your job because of some merit you saw in it, not because it was all you were qualified for. Although you may not be working logarithms, writing term papers, and masterminding chemical ex¬ plosions in your line of work, you will still be able to apply the prin¬ ciples of finance, discipline, organization, resource use, and balance that saw you through col¬ lege. You will be academic. Mountain Ash 29

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academics 1986-87 school year, so the pro¬ spective academic still has some time to arrange other financial support. After money, the second re¬ quirement needed to become an academic is scholastic standing. This is the aspect of the word “academic” that most students identified. If one wishes to attend college — become academic — one must take a few classes. Classes involve tests. To pass tests, one must generally study. In fact, the necessity of studying looms like a dark cloud over the life of the student. Some students, often freshmen in their first quarter, ignore this cloud, blissfully ignorant of its threat. They discover the meaning of the cloud during Dead Week of the first quarter, when they try to make up all the work that has been “sliding” all quarter. If they are to continue in their academic career, they quickly learn to discipline themselves. This is probably the most important thing that the con¬ tinuing student learns in his first quarter of college. The second most important thing that he learns is that Walla Walla College has an exemplary Teaching Learning Center, which provides tutors for both “drop-in” — or emergency — tutoring, and “private” — or long-range plan¬ ning — tutoring. This service is free. Most students employ the ser¬ vices of a tutor at some point in their college career, usually to help them over some particularly rough assignment. With these two tools, the average student can cope with the average class. When the student gets farther on in his academic career, he acquires other concerns, like whether the classes he needs will be offered at a time when he can take them? Students on a relatively small campus like WWC find this to be more of a problem than do students on a larger campus, where a greater number of classes are offered. For students in a small program on a small campus — like the students taking Speech Pathology — budget cuts may not only limit class offerings, but also totally eradic ate the major. If the student chooses to take an uncommon major, he must learn to organize himself, taking classes that are not likely to be offered again soon, and leaving more conventional classes to be taken later. The student who wants to become an academic must learn to organize himself. Although the average student is pretty well occupied between fill¬ ing his financial and sholastic obligations, he has yet another responsibility. He must keep himself mentally fit. Students do this in a variety of ways. Some par¬ ticipate in organized activities, like College Bowl, Sonnenberg Games, Saturday night programs, and banquets. Others prefer to resuscitate themselves in more per¬ sonal activities, like running, swim¬ ming, recreational reading, weight-lifting, bowling, dating, talk¬ ing, and going to McDonald’s (for shakes and fries). No matter which path is chosen, the student who seriously plans to become an academic realizes that he will not be taken seriously if his mailing ad¬ dress is a mental home, and takes steps to prevent this. The student who wants to become an academic must learn to balance his activities. For some, however, attending Walla Walla College is not an in¬ tellectual affair, but a social one. All the jokes made about “going to college to get married” tend to belittle the student who does this. This prevents the student who primarily wants to find a Christian spouse from acknowledging his The practical end of educa¬ tion is covered here as well— as exemplified in this painstak¬ ing reproduction (left) of the Bayeaux tapestry. Purely academic pursuits are sup¬ ported by the best and fastest growing, library (right) in Col¬ lege Place. 28 Mountain Ash

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Ufe After Hours at W ' WC by Curt Dewees Within the sometimes stifling at¬ mosphere of a student’s academic life there can always be found some form of release for a needed change of pace. Campus Ministries, the ASWWC, several other campus clubs a nd special interest groups devote great time and ef¬ fort in providing such opportunities for these much needed escapes. Special events like the annual Snow-Frolic at Anthony Lakes, allow normally sane and studious members of the stu¬ dent body to eat a little snow and blitz the bindings right out of their rented skis.