Laura Merrell
The first-years have moved in and bought their books, but they’re in for a rude awakening. In the next few weeks, most will have their first encounter with rude drivers along Beall Avenue. The encounters will most likely range from mildly amusing to extremely offensive and will later be recounted to their shocked friends. The occurrences may be novel at first, but first-years will soon become accustomed to the tales from Beall Avenue. It would be difficult to find an upperclassman that hasn’t had a comment yelled at them from the window of a passing car. Last year, along Beall Avenue, students got insults, slurs, and even blow darts thrown in their direction.
I fell into the trap of eagerly retelling my misadventures with the “townies” to my friends. We could laugh and shrug in our isolated bubble on campus without any hope of improvement or change. Pissing and moaning is much easier than coming up with solutions. However, unless we decide to uproot the campus to a new location outside of any developed area, townspeople are a permanent, unchanging dynamic of the wider college community.
The small portion of rude local townspeople we encounter passing through our campus on Beall should not solely inform our perception of the town of Wooster; just as the stumbling procession of college students along Beall several nights a week should not solely inform the town’s perception of Wooster students.
Eugene M. Lang, a philanthropist, suggests in his article, “Distinctly American: The Liberal Arts College,” that a liberal arts campus should focus on creating and sustaining durable partnerships with the community, particularly with the high school. So next time some teenagers want to drive down Beall and loudly remind us what the parts of the male reproductive system are, one kid will remember a College of Wooster student tutoring him in math or marching alongside them during a football half-time show, and suggest going to the movies instead.
Volunteering at the public library in downtown Wooster afforded me the chance to change how college students are perceived. I also got to see that townspeople are warm and friendly. One librarian gave me a ride back to campus after hours on a cold November night, so I wouldn’t have to walk back. Yes, we all did community service (or rather, were forced to as part of orientation) for a few hours as first-years, but volunteering is a viable solution to the “townie” problem.
Instead of volunteering being almost exclusively limited to Greeks and Program Houses, volunteering outside of campus activities should become a widespread priority for students. After all, the liberal arts are not just about academics. We are supposed to be learning about our civic responsibility as well, which can be achieved through community service. Volunteering allows the town to see what the College of Wooster students are really like. U.S. News and World Report describes the College of Wooster as “unpretentious,” so let’s go out into the community and prove that.