In the propaganda put out by governments at all levels, considerable emphasis is often placed on the importance of education and the respect those in public office profess to have for their fellow civil servants pursuing the subdued honors of educating the next generation rather than the more obvious glories of elected position.
In the state of Maryland, such lofty sentiments about aiding in the dispersion of knowledge are little more than beguiling words when it comes to putting the state’s money where the mouths of the politicians are.
At the University of Maryland, those facilitating the orderly transfer of knowledge are so valued that the servants of the people are required to render tribute for the privilege of arranging the storage necessary to drive their own vehicles to work. Campus employees much pay at least $314 a year for a parking permit.
However, it seems even this is not enough as permit prices are going to increase to $345 for employees making under $50,000 and $517 a year for those making over $50,000. According to the February 3, 2005 edition of the Diamondback, the increase will in part go to finance increases in employee insurance benefits and overall utility bills.
But while university and state administrators sing the blues of hard times, from very same edition of the paper detailing the parking crisis is a story that causes the reader unfamiliar with the twisted logic of higher education to question whether resources there are being allocated in the manner most expeditious to facilitating the university’s core mission and its responsibilities to those charged with carrying out these tasks. For while the faculty and staff are being compelled to aide in shouldering a $80,000 Department of Transportation Services budget, things aren’t apparently that tight as the Health Center had no problem dispensing 200,000 free condoms --- some of which were flavored --- provided by the Maryland State AIDS Administration.
As will be expected, the kneejerk enthusiasts of decadence will snap, “It’s nobodies business at a university who uses condoms.” And in a sense they are correct.
If college students want to be treated as adults, shouldn’t they be required to procure their own prophylactics out of their own disposable incomes?
Those continuing to wallow in their own debauchery will no doubt continue to insist upon the need for privacy. What better reason then to eliminate campus condom distribution programs?
For where will privacy be better protected: at the campus health center where heaven only knows whom you might bump into from one of your classes or at a store or supermarket removed from the prying eyes of college gossips where the only faces recognized are those of the presidents whose visages demarcate the denominations of currency?
Those still affectionate towards the condom racket will no doubt whine, “But students couldn’t otherwise afford condoms.” If that’s the case, should they really be carrying on in such a manner as to need them?
One of the purposes of a college education is to make one a civilized individual, one aspect of which is realizing one cannot always satisfy one’s desires at the moment one would necessarily like to.
One does not take on the responsibilities of a mature relationship unless one can afford to do so. The mature individual does not expect the government to pick up the tab for their assorted pleasures.
In the financially trying times in which we live, policy makers must carefully determine the educational priorities of the jurisdictions over which they govern. Will they use what resources are available to properly compensate those charged with the responsibility of turning the lofty ideals of education into a concrete reality or will they squander them fostering salacious pursuits that degrade both the individual as well as the broader society.
Copyright 2005 by Frederick Meekins
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