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As I sit and reflect on the first editorial opinion piece of the new Engineer I think to myself, "I'm an engineer and I haven't written for four years." My homework assignments consist of "squiggly lines" and varying colors each corresponding to a separate answer. These squiggly lines are mastered only by few and far between.
At Manhattan College, these few seem to have been isolated to a small
corner of the community down in two little brick buildings: one with a
mysterious smoke stack rising high above Gaelic Park and the other with
labs so cold, you wish your class was outside in February.
The majority of these squiggly lines find themselves on "engineering paper." This is basically a glorified copy of graph paper with a large header on the top complemented by convenient name, date, and project fields. It kind of makes you feel special when you use it. I know I use it even when it's not required for an assignment, just because it's "engineering" paper and that's what I am. Once I even handed accounting homework in on engineering paper on which I typed my name, date, and assignment, only to get a "wow, fancy" from the teacher.
Any business, education, or arts homework, when there is something to be done, is handed in on plain white paper typically one or two pages thick and computer typed. This sort of homework assignment is most prominently featured on a particular plot of land that has been come to be known as "main campus."
There is an air about this idea known as main campus which screams, "JASPERS." I don't know if it's the eight trees in the center quadrangle or the three cafeterias which give main campus students the free will that engineers only dream about, but there is definitely something separating main campus with Leo.
Leo is a large red overpowering building with ample stairwells, a mysterious smokestack, window-absent classrooms, and a drab blue cafeteria where chicken nugget Fridays is something to look forward to.
I have been feeling the presence of a divider between main campus and Leo my whole tenure here at Manhattan College. There are the engineers who say we are too far away from campus and do not receive the same attention from administration or student activities. Then there are some main campus students who feel the school is centered on engineering and that all is devoted to Leo. Is this a debate of location or major? Does the paper we do our homework on determine how much of a Jasper we are?
This great divide is something I like to call the Great Gaelic Divide. (GGD). This imaginary line runs from the bottom of Gaelic park all the way west through the field eventually splitting the Waldo parking lot in two and finally ending somewhere along the western wall of the latter. Just as rivers flow either east or west from the Continental Divide, so do engineers/mathematicians and education/business/arts majors flow from the GGD. The engineers and mathematicians flow southward towards Leo and RLC while the others flow northward onto this idea known as main campus.
This divide is more than a physical one; it is a strong and powerful psychological divide. There is a gap between the beings that reside on main campus and those that dwell in Leo. There are many engineers who feel secluded and isolated, feeling as though they are not part of the Manhattan College community. They feel as though the GGD is just too much of a burden to cross. Others on main campus fear Leo and the people within, a fear that has not yet been defined: a fear of the unknown, of bewilderment and confusion. This fear encompasses questions like, "How could they [engineers] possibly spend so much time in the library?" or "What on Earth do they study in Intro to Geomechanics or Separation Process Design I?" or even something as wild as "Should I walk to Leo and find an engineer if my sink is broken?"
Henceforth, my goal shall be to quell these fears. I hope and pray that some "main campus" major will be brave enough to grab a copy of this magazine and survive through ethanol conversions and nanotechnology to make it here, the last page. One will never find long words that can't be defined here, on this last page.
Whether our homework is done on graph paper or type-written on our computers, whether it contains squiggly lines and colors or ramblings and opinions on Karl Marx, every student here at Manhattan College is just as much of a Jasper as the next. The GGD should have no control over our "Jasperness."
Fortunately, the GGD has been dealt a serious blow recently. There are bright new, young faces bringing joy and spirit into the corridors of Leo Engineering. The communications department and biology department have been officially moved down to our little corner of the universe. I wholeheartedly welcome them and truly hope they enjoy their stay. My dream is that this move will impact the Leo Engineering building like never before. This will create a pathway through the GGD for engineers to channel into main campus and for main campus students to get the strength to come to Leo. I have hopes and dreams for a united campus.
I challenge you engineers, the whole lot of you, to venture to main campus during your one hour break and enjoy a Sandella's wrap in Dante's Den. It may not be the best setting to finish your Chemical Processes homework in, but they sure make a damn fine Verona Wrap.
And you, main campus majors with the guts and bravery to make it to the final page: I challenge you to stop buying your text books online at Amazon and eBay just to avoid Leo. Head down here! Ignore what your teachers tell you, we don't bite. Come have some chicken nuggets with me on Friday afternoon.
A bridge can be built and we can unite campus as a whole if we only fight the beast that will forever be known, at least to me, as the Great Gaelic Divide. The future sure looks bright and I see a united campus ahead.
The majority of these squiggly lines find themselves on "engineering paper." This is basically a glorified copy of graph paper with a large header on the top complemented by convenient name, date, and project fields. It kind of makes you feel special when you use it. I know I use it even when it's not required for an assignment, just because it's "engineering" paper and that's what I am. Once I even handed accounting homework in on engineering paper on which I typed my name, date, and assignment, only to get a "wow, fancy" from the teacher.
Any business, education, or arts homework, when there is something to be done, is handed in on plain white paper typically one or two pages thick and computer typed. This sort of homework assignment is most prominently featured on a particular plot of land that has been come to be known as "main campus."
There is an air about this idea known as main campus which screams, "JASPERS." I don't know if it's the eight trees in the center quadrangle or the three cafeterias which give main campus students the free will that engineers only dream about, but there is definitely something separating main campus with Leo.
Leo is a large red overpowering building with ample stairwells, a mysterious smokestack, window-absent classrooms, and a drab blue cafeteria where chicken nugget Fridays is something to look forward to.
I have been feeling the presence of a divider between main campus and Leo my whole tenure here at Manhattan College. There are the engineers who say we are too far away from campus and do not receive the same attention from administration or student activities. Then there are some main campus students who feel the school is centered on engineering and that all is devoted to Leo. Is this a debate of location or major? Does the paper we do our homework on determine how much of a Jasper we are?
This great divide is something I like to call the Great Gaelic Divide. (GGD). This imaginary line runs from the bottom of Gaelic park all the way west through the field eventually splitting the Waldo parking lot in two and finally ending somewhere along the western wall of the latter. Just as rivers flow either east or west from the Continental Divide, so do engineers/mathematicians and education/business/arts majors flow from the GGD. The engineers and mathematicians flow southward towards Leo and RLC while the others flow northward onto this idea known as main campus.
This divide is more than a physical one; it is a strong and powerful psychological divide. There is a gap between the beings that reside on main campus and those that dwell in Leo. There are many engineers who feel secluded and isolated, feeling as though they are not part of the Manhattan College community. They feel as though the GGD is just too much of a burden to cross. Others on main campus fear Leo and the people within, a fear that has not yet been defined: a fear of the unknown, of bewilderment and confusion. This fear encompasses questions like, "How could they [engineers] possibly spend so much time in the library?" or "What on Earth do they study in Intro to Geomechanics or Separation Process Design I?" or even something as wild as "Should I walk to Leo and find an engineer if my sink is broken?"
Henceforth, my goal shall be to quell these fears. I hope and pray that some "main campus" major will be brave enough to grab a copy of this magazine and survive through ethanol conversions and nanotechnology to make it here, the last page. One will never find long words that can't be defined here, on this last page.
Whether our homework is done on graph paper or type-written on our computers, whether it contains squiggly lines and colors or ramblings and opinions on Karl Marx, every student here at Manhattan College is just as much of a Jasper as the next. The GGD should have no control over our "Jasperness."
Fortunately, the GGD has been dealt a serious blow recently. There are bright new, young faces bringing joy and spirit into the corridors of Leo Engineering. The communications department and biology department have been officially moved down to our little corner of the universe. I wholeheartedly welcome them and truly hope they enjoy their stay. My dream is that this move will impact the Leo Engineering building like never before. This will create a pathway through the GGD for engineers to channel into main campus and for main campus students to get the strength to come to Leo. I have hopes and dreams for a united campus.
I challenge you engineers, the whole lot of you, to venture to main campus during your one hour break and enjoy a Sandella's wrap in Dante's Den. It may not be the best setting to finish your Chemical Processes homework in, but they sure make a damn fine Verona Wrap.
And you, main campus majors with the guts and bravery to make it to the final page: I challenge you to stop buying your text books online at Amazon and eBay just to avoid Leo. Head down here! Ignore what your teachers tell you, we don't bite. Come have some chicken nuggets with me on Friday afternoon.
A bridge can be built and we can unite campus as a whole if we only fight the beast that will forever be known, at least to me, as the Great Gaelic Divide. The future sure looks bright and I see a united campus ahead.
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