It’s no small secret that the TKC economic curriculum and ideology is undoubtedly conservative, bordering on Libertarian. I certainly have no problem with this—it saves me the time and letter grades I would have lost arguing had Keynes been one of the school’s intellectual fathers.Here’s where I see irony turning its odd little head: a school that is through-and-through small government tends to, in some instances, run itself like the Carter administration. Consider these two, glaring examples that jumped out to me:
• Gym Membership
We all pay for the gym regardless of whether or not we decide to work out. This used to be presumptuous back when everyone had a membership to Crunch; now that only some of us actually get gym memberships with NYHRC, this policy borders on Socialism. Student Services’s rationale seems to be, “Well, if we didn’t subsidize the cost of memberships, very few of our students would have the means to secure one for themselves.” Hmmm now what if very few of us could afford health insurance?
• Utilities
Room A and Room B are situated side-by-side on one of The Vogue’s upper floors. The students in Room A make a conscious effort to be conservative with their utilities. They never use more than one light in a room and always turn it off before they leave that room, take five-minute showers, and don’t use the heat when an old hoodie or blanket would do the trick. Next door in Room B, however, the students use their utilities like someone else is paying for them (since, well, somebody else is). Student B.1 keeps the thermostat at an arctic 66º at all times; Student B.2 falls asleep with the TV on five nights a week; Student B.3 steams his business-casual attire in the bathroom every morning after his shower; and Student B.4 feels most comfortable studying when the lighting in his room resembles a tanning salon. Now, common sense would tell you that Room A’s annual utility bill would be roughly the same as Room B’s monthly bill…but no. The students in Rooms A & B pay exactly the same. Sure, its less paperwork for both the students and for residence life, but that doesn’t make it right.
Of course, I am the one who leaves the door open with the A/C on…
Dan,
I think you defintely have some good reflections. About residence life, I remember Dale sent us an email asking us to conserve everything, and when we consciously worked on it, (I know this because he gave us the figures), we more than cut our monthly energy bill in half. Now this year, we have the A/C going all the time…
And about the gym membership, something tells me that they will be working to fix those problems for next year. I bet you that’s a high priority after all that’s happened this year. Plus there are going to be 130 freshmen.
I wonder if there was a way for us to regularly see our utilities bills. Maybe it would be good stewardship for them to give us incentives to use them wisely. Sometimes, its not enough to make you want to do the right thing, even in Christian communities, just by informing everyone what the right thing is.