Alum recalls 'great' experience

Although I graduated last year, I came back to Duke this past weekend for the Catholic Awakening retreat. Sticking around for an extra few days, I was appalled and flabbergasted to read Matt Dearborn’s column “And Then We Fell off a Cliff.”

As an engineer, I have much respect for people who can write well enough to have their own column in The Chronicle. However, I feel like this gentleman, along with many others before him, abuse this privilege to be the kid who is “too cool for [his] school.”

After reading column after column about how Duke’s social scene sucks and the administration is too overbearing, I wondered if everyone really did feel this way. The results of my survey were somewhat different from Dearborn’s. All of my friends (those who have graduated and the many still attending) have had fantastic experiences at Duke.

I was provided an opportunity to spend four years of my life with amazingly talented, interesting and fun-loving people. I am not sure what you are expecting Duke to do for you that it doesn’t already do. This is beside the point. What you should really be wondering is, “Who is really to blame?” I bet the answer is staring you in the mirror.

As my buddy Harvey Danger so eloquently proclaimed as he was sitting on a flagpole, “If you’re bored then you’re boring.” If your undergraduate experience isn’t all you had hoped, don’t take the easy road and blame the University. I honestly don’t know why your parents continue to pay for your tuition. It’s like renewing a subscription to a magazine that you never read the whole year. It makes no sense. Go to some school in Northern California where it is never too hot and never too cool but at the very least, take pride in your school.

It wasn’t a fluke that I had a great experience at Duke. I worked hard to make lifelong friends and I enjoyed being a Blue Devil for the simple fact that I was able to spend time with them. Others have had great experiences because of exciting academic challenges, still others because of Duke Basketball. President Richard Brodhead, in his address on the undergraduate experience explains it best, “We do our part by creating a super-stimulating ecosystem that will elicit your responsiveness on multiple fronts. You do your part when you engage: when you invest these opportunities with your active life.”

Jeff Jones