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Opinion

Be courteous to your fellow cougars

Jude Maydwell
Opinion Columnist

Upon moving to the South from the wicked awesome North, I definitely had some pre-conceived notions about the great state of Texas. I thought cowboy hats and gigantic belt buckles were on every man, armadillos and tumbleweeds on every street corner. I have not seen nearly enough cowboy hats, and as for what I’ve seen on the street corners … well, I’ve seen more wholesome things on Cinemax at midnight. 

Another expectation I had of the South was a good ol’ cordial and polite attitude, full of "yes ma’am’s" and "how y’all doin’s?" I have had a few encounters with Southern hospitality, but one place I have not seen it is on our own beloved campus. Some of the students around here need a lesson in proper classroom etiquette and how to behave in the college environment.

One of the first problems that needs to be fixed is the sitting arrangement in classrooms. I am sure everybody has had a class in an auditorium at some point or another. They are large and can get crowded, but there are a few things we can do to make our stay more enjoyable. If you get there early, do not sit in the outer row. Move to the inside so that those of us who suffer from "chronic lateness" are not forced to crawl over you, shoving our rears or crotches in your face while you are trying to take notes on Communist Russia. 

Also, please prepare for the possibility of classroom proximity. If you are going to sit right next to someone, make sure you have properly bathed and deodorized yourself. We do not want to smell you coffee-laden breath as you whisper that you want to borrow a pencil. 

The next realm to revamp is classroom participation. I know everybody thinks what they have to say is "important’ or "necessary," but there are some things that don’t need to be said in class. If we are in a fruitful, enlightened discussion, I don’t want to hear any interjections about how your dog pooped in your favorite Jimmy Choo shoes, or how the front of the textbook reminds you of your last trip to your friend Starlight Moonbeam Tree Lover’s house. Simply think about what you want to say. Say it once inside your head to make sure it makes sense and is relevant to the topic at hand, and then simply add it to the educational jambalaya being cooked. I am sure it will taste delicious.

Finally, my biggest pet peeve since my arrival at UH is the inefficient use of the computers in the library. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I do occassionally need to do some school work on a computer, seeing as they are now the commanders of our lives. 

Imagine my dismay when I fight through a slew of people to wait in line for a computer, on which someone is checking out Facebook.com. I really don’t think your life is in any immediate danger if you can’t see what has been written on your wall every seven-and-a-half minutes. So please, have some sort of respect for those of us who actually have real work to do and want to graduate in under a decade. 

I hope we can all find a way to get along with each other and form the sort of utopian college experience that was modeled for me last semester on Monday nights. 

Maydwell, an opinion columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at jmaydwell@gmail.com.