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Waters smashes the screen of a television. |
-Photo by Jason Harville |
I realize that from a financial standpoint, the idea of having cable can be appealing to the college. It will bring revenue in and might possibly make the college even more appealing to prospective students. However, do we want to recruit students whose deciding factor in attending Milligan is whether or not they have cable in their rooms?
Every summer, new students receive a copy of the Summer Sizzler, which recommends leaving video games at home because they are addictive and result in hours of wasted time. This same list of survival hints reassures students that each dorm lobby has a television with cable, hoping that “if you are forced to journey to the lobby to watch the television, it may cut down on your viewing and increase your time studying.”
I hear people complain about living in a bubble, or not having enough access to what is happening in the world. I beg to differ. Every dorm room on this campus has an Internet “port per pillow” and anyone can choose to be as connected or disconnected as they wish, accessing any number of news sites at anytime.
I can say that being at Milligan for four years without cable has not hurt me in any way. I don’t have a television in my room this year, not only because we just don’t own one or the time to watch it, but also because I end up spending more time talking to the people around me. Somehow I don’t think that sitting next to someone and staring at the TV can be considered quality time, nor do I think it promotes the sense of community that I thought Milligan has been trying to embody.
I am not saying that it’s not fun to watch TV with friends, but think of what would happen if everyone had cable in their rooms. I am not anti-cable, but I do feel it’s a small price to pay for building relationships. Think about it. How many people would still meet in the lobbies or in the Grill to watch Joe Millionaire or ER or whatever show is popular?
As it stands right now, students who have earned a room in one of the upperclassmen dorms or in MSA have the privilege of having the option of cable for themselves. By making cable a mandatory expense, something included in tuition, it's a sign of the college’s seal of approval, recommending this as something both necessary and beneficial for students to have, as they have done with such things as technology, health and student fees.
People could argue that there are many things that could be just as tempting when it comes down to taking away from study time, such as warm, sunny spring days. But when it’s possible to control it in some way, why don’t we? We can unplug it or never use it, but why put the temptation right in front of us and then say it’s optional?
The apostle Paul gives us an example in 1 Corinthians, where he urges Christians to exercise great care with their liberty. In 1 Cor. 6:12 he says that all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. Later, in chapter 8 he advises us to “take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak…thus, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.”
Sure, we are adults, and we are able to make our own decisions. Why should the college be able to tell us we can't have cable? As part of this community, we need to consider what will be better for us as a whole. Perhaps you are reading this and you know that you would not struggle with cable in your room. Most likely, however, you know someone this could be a problem for. As Christians, we are not to think of ourselves, but about the concerns of others. Maybe by deciding that cable may not be the best thing for our community might be even more of an adult decision.
After graduation it’s very unlikely that I will look back fondly on the times I hung out in my room and channel-surfed. Instead I will remember Sept. 11, and the times I ate ice cream and talked with the girls in my suite until 2:30 a.m., and this past Monday night, when I joined 24 people, both students and faculty, who gathered in the Grill to watch the President address the world on CNN.
That is the kind of community that I feel Milligan is in pursuit of - the kind that promotes interaction and discussion. If we are truly about changing lives and shaping culture, why allow something proven to be so powerful to compete with that? It makes me wonder, with this new addition to our community, who exactly will be doing the shaping.