Westward Expansion

Last week I interviewed Jim Anderson from the Department of Mass Media, Communication, and Theatre in order to learn more information about his involvement in the Commerce Week on Writing. We discussed, among other things, the No Experience Necessary 24 hour Playwriting Competition and Festival. I mentioned previously what an incredible opportunity this would be--particularly for amateur playwrights who want to jump into this art with both feet--but I didn't realize how true this was until I participated in the competition myself. More on this to come.

Jim Anderson and I spoke for a long while about various concepts, primarily the art of playwriting and how it applied to the competition, but also about professors whom we were both familiar with and their merits, similar interests held by students in different departments, and how those interests often interact and coincide with each other.

This made me realize one very important thing: as we are now, as a university, we are too esoteric in our individual departments. We are quaratined from each other, only interested in our own localized enviornments, even if we often share a great many similarities with those in other fields of study. Once we become graduate students (the only experience I can honestly speak from), there seems to be a great deal of pressure for us to become more and more focused in our fields of study, rather than to continue exploring new areas--and god forbid, new buildings.

This, naturally, is not true of everyone; I've noticed a lot more interaction between faculty members and students from different departments than there has been in the past, and it pleases me to see this. To completely ignore what others are doing is detrimental to our academic research, as well as our overall campus enviornment. I am constantly surprised by how many people in other departments are working on the same sorts of projects or fields of study that I am; the obvious thing to do is to collaborate with them. And I only find out about these kindred spirits by getting out of the Hall of Languages when I can, interacting with other people that I'm not familiar with, finding out what interests them.

This is a very simple step toward broadening our horizons: if nothing else, just go to another building and hang out in their lobby for a while. See how people interact with each other, how it differs from what you're used to. I've spent the better part of last week in the Performing Arts Center, and without trying I've met several individuals who I can relate to on some level, people who I now consider good friends. After talking to them about the profound similarities in our interests and studies, I realized that I should've met these people a long time ago.

There's no reason to be partitioned off from people who we can collaborate with. I propose an assignment to anyone who reads this: make it a point, within the next week, to take some time and go to another building on campus. Then start talking to the people there. Find out something about them. You might be surprised by what you discover.