Welcome to Hampshire College, I'm glad that you are here and maybe more importantly to you, oddly enough, I'm glad that I'm here. As a student you want all of the support workers here to feel that way and generally I think that's true, we do feel that way. We like both the college as an idea and we like you, Hampshire students, as clients, colleagues, and friends. Some of us have been Hampshire students ourselves and some of us even have had our own children become Hampshire students, so we're invested personally and emotionally. I think that amount of attachment to the college is unusual in support staff and you benefit directly because of it. So with that degree of attachment in mind I want to offer you as much insight and perspective as I can that bridges the daily troubles and the cosmic nature of life.
While Hampshire offers you great opportunities many other people will speak to you about that and yes, I will too, but later. Now I'm more interested in problem solving. Hampshire, as any institution, is not without problems and you will experience some here. What you do about them is what separates the amateurs from the pros: the people who drop away unhappy and the people who flourish and prosper. If you have a problem, not just a difficulty, but a real problem tell someone about it, but choose wisely the person to tell. In fact deciding who to tell will often lead to solving your problem. Talking to the wrong person is a diagnostic, a proof, that you don't know how to solve your problem, you might as well be talking to a wall and often it feels just that way. Hopefully the person you address will realize your situation and help you find the correct person to talk with and in doing so will direct you to the possibility of a real solution.
Telling someone you have a real problem helps you directly in two ways. First it's simply therapeutic. You'll feel better even if nothing changes and honestly that is the most frequent outcome. You've stated your case, some one has listened to you and it ends there – you walk away. Secondly no one else may even realize there is a problem. Again, even if nothing is resolved you've started the process of simply having people notice the situation. If several people speak up about the same problem it will be addressed, but each one of you have to vote with your actions to insure that eventuality. If you don't speak up the failure is on your part. This is a way all of you, working as a group, can steer the course of the college. It's how you, as a collective, have the most power and authority to direct the thinking and behavior of the institution to your benefit. By not speaking out you forfeit a great deal of your power as students. Think of it as citizen participation, an easy and powerful way to vote.
A related classic problem at Hampshire is exemplified by the phrase "the Hampshire run-around". That is being shuffled from one department to another with no real answer seemingly being given. The correction to that kind of situation is easy but not obvious. The problem lies not in incorrect answers, every one tries to tell you the right thing, but in an inappropriate question. I always ask staff not to immediately answer a students question, but first to validate the question. That takes a little more time in back and forth conversation, but in the end both of you will know more about each other, which is always a good thing and more about your real question. If you're asking the wrong question the answer is moot, it's always going to be wrong. Who ever controls the question controls the answer, but remember that's you. You're the one asking the question. Be sure it's the question you want answered.
The next thing I need to tell you is a little sobering. You live in a dangerous demographic. Ten years from now one of you will be dead, mostly from car accidents. What does that mean to you personally? Other than not getting into a car ever again, I think it means have a good time now. Think short term. If you have a crush on some one tell them. If you ever wanted to play the piano do it now. If you want to go to Paris do it now. Work hard. Play hard. Enjoy life fully because you may never have another chance. Wow.
But wait, here's the next actuarial fact – almost six of you will live to be close to one hundred years old. Not just barely alive, but active and healthful. What does that mean to you personally? I think it means plan for the long haul. Live a healthy life. Always think long term. Invest in yourself and the society in which you live. Don't take foolish risks. See the future ahead of you as a real event.
And of course, the rest of you are somewhere in the middle of all of that. A little of this a little of that all mixed together in an unknown proportion with unknowable outcomes.
So there's a dilemma for you to work on – the balance of life – between the short term and the long term, both are your reality, both situations should alter your thinking. However, the fact is that no one else has a clue about what to do either. This is the first time any of us remember being alive, well most of us. We're just making it up as we go along, with a little help from some books we recommend to each other. So finally I'll end as I started, welcome to the world, welcome to Hampshire College.
Would that help you as a new student understand more about Hampshire College and maybe life in general? Maybe, maybe not.
gunther
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