The Michigan Review

Looking Back, Moving Forward

by Benjamin Kepple

Professors and administrators expect freshmen at the University of Michigan to act as sponges, to suck up all the lies and propaganda fed to them without complaint. This is most evident in the Orientation program conducted by the University. As many of you already know, this morass of a program is nearly impossible to escape from psychologically unscathed, although it can be done if one drinks heavily enough. But most hideous of the stulifying sessions freshmen are placed in at Orientation are the godawful Group Sessions: those blatant exercises in indoctrination where incoming freshmen are expected to kowtow to the politically and demographically correct mercenaries that stuff the bloody things.

Unfortunately, Disorientation (as we like to call it) has a rather serious side effect. Sometimes these awful exercises in supposed diversity training actually managed to indoctrinate the new student. This student then goes home and tortures his poor, loving parents for the remainder of the summer with tales of whiteskin privilege, imperialism, and our oppressive capitalist society, along with other new phrases he doesn't understand. In less serious cases, the students take a sharp turn to the left for the remainder of their college career, an ideological shift which suddenly reverses when the difference between "gross pay" and "net pay" becomes a three to four digit number every two weeks. However, most students - about 80 to 85 percent - are either conservative, moderately conservative, centrist, or apathetic. If this campus truly was a hotbed of social activism and militant liberalism, we would see it. Fifteen people postering "Free Mumia!" around the Fishbowl, or even two hundred on the Diag protesting a California proposition they can't affect, just doesn't cut it.

The problem with this equation is that many new students are complacent and apathetic, or they see that liberalism is the easy way to go on campus. They may feel nervous or afraid about speaking out or getting involved, even if they fundamentally disagree with what is being taught in their classes, being said in their sections, and being done around campus.

Take it from someone who has been in your shoes. Speak out. Raise holy hell.

This is the one time in your life when you will have the independence, the freedom, and the chance to truly express your views. You can backhand the entire campus in the face with a column and nothing bad will happen to you. You can bring speakers to campus and enlighten hundreds, and if the Administration doesn't want them here, there's nothing they can do. You can attack the Administration in print, on radio, and on television, and they're powerless to stop you. You can protest, you can chant, you can burn Lee Bollinger in effigy in front of a camera crew if you want - you attend the finest public University the world has to offer and you have the right to make it what you want. This is not the faculty's school, and most certainly not the Administration's school. It is yours.

I was looking to write for a campus publication a little less than four years ago, and an advertisement led me to The Michigan Review. While I was unsure at first, I soon fell in love with it, and the next year I eventually became its Publisher. My junior year led me to become Managing Editor, and in my senior year I was Editor-in-Chief. During these years I learned how to run a small business, gained valuable business skills, acted as an accountant, controller, salesman, and marketer - and that was just on the business side. I also wrote a somewhat popular column for two and a half years, did some good - sometimes fine - reporting, and improved my writing skills about 1,000 percent. In addition, I received a paid Washington internship, a disturbing amount of valuable contacts, tons of friends, and eventually two job offers all thanks to my work at the Review. At this point, my appearance on NewsHour and my profile on the front page of the Detroit Free Press were just icing on the cake.

I can honestly say the best decision of my life has been that decision to walk through the office door of the Review. Sometimes the road has been long and winding, and sometimes it has had bumps and potholes. But, God, was it worth it. Take it from someone who's been there - whatever you do in this life, use your college years to their fullest. Get out there and fight back. The work you do is important, and God knows we're counting on you. MR

Benjamin Kepple is Editor Emeritus of The Michigan Review , and is a journalist in Los Angeles, California. Not only does he live three blocks from the beach in a studio apartment, he has a new Ford Taurus.

This article was published in the Summer 1998 edition of The Michigan Review.
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