Back to School

Walking onto the Harrisburg HACC Campus was really weird. I didn't know what to expect. I'll admit I'm a bit of an academic snob so I failed to realize that for some people, this is it. It looks like a real college. I arrived via Rabbit Transit Express from York at 8:30 in the morning. It's a snowy morning and both York and Lebanon HACC campuses are closed today (In my defense I'm pretty sure at least the York Campus is just one building. I'll find out for sure on Friday.) so I wasn't even sure Harrisburg's would be open this early. Much to my surprise, there were people everywhere; hanging out with labtops in the lobby of the main building, hanging out in the gazebo in the courtyard. It's unmistakeably a college campus. I still found it weird that it was 8:30am and so many people were out and about. The library (my current location) is pretty full. You would only see a crowd like this at this hour of the morning during finals weeks at Lehigh. Well, come to think of it, I can't say that with any authority, because I was personally never in one of Lehigh's libraries from 8-9:30am. I was either in class or sleeping (or both!) so I could be wrong. I guess HACC students don't have the luxury of jumping out of bed and running across campus to class. The have to hang out here all day in the midst of going to class. And now I'm one of them. A line from another Avenue Q song comes to mind. The last line to this sucker:

"These kids are so much younger than me." (Which I would only say because, following the rhyme sequence, it has to rhyme with 'be'. Grammatically, it's an incorrect sentence and should be "younger than I". See, I told you, I'm a snob.)

After the initial shock of "whoa, this is like real college" I read the syllabi for two of my classes online and was reminded of where I am. With remarks like "quotes should not take up the whole page" in instructions for one page responses that will be due and later examples of the type of sentences NOT to write, my professor's frustration with prior students' performances is palpable. The other syllabus for the online class is filled with threats of deducting points if your posts are indicative of a lackluster effort. A post doesn't count if it only repeats another student's point and doesn't add anything new to discussion, you lose points if it looks like most of your posts are posted "at the last minute simply to meet the deadline rather than engaging in meaningful discussions" (that sentence is in bold and underlined) as well as for poor grammar and spelling (bold and italic). I've never felt so talked down to in a course syllabus. But then I look around me and see the guy next to me singing along obnoxiously to whatever is coming through his headphones (remember we're in a library) and the guy across from me aggressively scratching his junk and then I understand why they include these things.