Enough with the Grass!

The Student is Not the Client:
Enough with the Grass
Anthony Harris
Opinions Section Editor
anthonydeanharris@gmail.com

I promise that this will be my last article about grass.  I just like the idea of keeping people informed on the issue.

I met with André Bertrand, Vice President of Campus Operations, to inquire about the use of the campus green.  I had more information given to me in that meeting than in any experience I’ve had since I’ve been at Morehouse.  I asked questions and I got answers.  I wasn’t handled or patronized.  I wasn’t instructed on how to hold a meeting or sequestered like a child.  I had my questions answered the way a client should.

To some, I may have been handled.  I am writing an article to the students of Morehouse College stating that we should in fact not use the grass to preserve it.  We should find some means to cooperate with the campus to enrich dying student life and preserve our resources.  It is through this meeting that I realized that there are qualified, competent people at Morehouse College.  There are people that work here that should be examples for the rest of the workers here.

Vice President Bertrand should be a role model for the registrar’s office.  If Campus Operations can oversee the crumbling campus and plan as effectively as it can how to improve, there should still not be unexpected purges a floor below.  KN Henry should be an example to Financial Aid.  If this man works diligently at all hours of the night and weekends to ensure that students housing needs are provided and that the campus sustains some signs of vitality, I should not have friends that aren’t paid for because their loans went through three days early.

There are people here that work under the philosophy that the student is the client.  There are people here that know that the primary goal of a school is to educate.  That education is best achieved with willing students.  That alumni don’t donate years later if they were immensely dissatisfied with their undergraduate experiences.

When entering offices, students should not be treated as children, but as the men we aspire to be and that this school halfheartedly teaches us to be.  If loans are in our names, parents should not be the first to call.  Plans for the campus should be in the hands of all involved, not kept hidden away for rumors to generate.

If I am getting a new president, I want to know definitively who the candidates are.  If we are planning campus expansion, there should be stacks of the Morehouse College Master Plan sitting in a pile in Kilgore, not passed about from office to office.

I walked into an office before Spring Break and I got answers from a man who knows what happens here at Morehouse.  He told me the differences between Morehouse’s green and Clark Atlanta’s green (Clark Atlanta uses Kentucky grass).  He told me about protocol and grass stability.  He told me about the future of the college and what benefits there will be for the students.  I left reassured about my ‘House and those in it.

I left Gloster Hall with my head held high and a good story to tell, something many people here don’t get to do too often.  I left Gloster Hall with faith in the administration.  I left Gloster Hall feeling as though I’m getting my money’s worth out of Morehouse College.

I left Gloster Hall feeling like the client.  It’s a good first step.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Artistic Partnerships

To Be Young, Gifted, Black, and a Jazz Enthusiast: Apparent Needle in a Haystack

2022: I Lost My Father and Got Into Milton Nascimento