Its Who I'm Around That Defines Me?

To further the work I have done on my research regarding college education and conforming to a role within the college environment, I would like to dive deeper into my claims and thesis. Focusing on linking my two articles, “Black Stereotyping in a University Population” and “Race Relations on Campus” to the film “Neighbors” starring Seth Rogen and Zac Efron. Revolving around the idea that the role you choose to play in college greatly affects how successful academically a person can be in college. Meaning for instance if a college student chooses to surround him or herself around people that take the social aspect of college and partying seriously then he or her too with adapt and conform to that lifestyle. If that person conforms to that lifestyle, he or she will mostly be spending the majority of their time drunk or under the influence of some drug partying. Causing him or her to spend less time studying with their face in the books and improving their academics. In turn effecting the outcome of his or her grades, in turn effecting that person’s college educational experience. My thesis works the same in the other direction too. Meaning if he or she surrounds themselves with people who are studious and focus most of their time studying and working on their academics, he or she will adapt and conform to that nature. Causing their academics to get better and increase their college educational experience. To support that thesis any members of the audience can watch the film “Neighbors” and identify examples of such across the board. Teddy was your average Frat Star at his University. Teddy surrounded himself with only members of his fraternity and the majority of them were busy following Teddy’s lead and partaking in the social aspects of college and fraternity life. Meaning that the crowd Teddy surrounded himself with were drinking, smoking and partying with Teddy because they all conformed to that lifestyle in college. Most of the characters within the fraternity were not that good at decision making just like Teddy. For instance Teddy was angry and instead of taking the necessary “grown up” steps needed to calm him down Teddy gets into a physical altercation and then starts throwing stuff off of the fraternity’s porch which lead to him accidentally “striking” a professor. These adolescent traits are found all over Teddy’s friend group. Regarding Garf, who clearly understood that he had a meeting with the Dean of the school regarding discipline, ate a marijuana brownie before. The decision making of the fraternity should definitely give you a hint to how most of them are doing academically. Which is absolutely terrible. Teddy’s GPA could not even get him a small internship. Teddy’s GPA was below the marker that students must have if they want to join a Greek organization on the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s campus. These examples hopefully show how conforming to a group of people/friends can affect your college educational opportunities/experiences. According to the assignment guidelines I must also counter my own claims, thesis, and arguments. So if the audience believes that my writing primarily highlights the idea that joining a fraternity will ruin your college education then that would be completely wrong. Represented in Pete, who was the Vice President of the Fraternity featured in “Neighbors” and he could definitely could be called the nerdy one. Pete spent time with the Fraternity and Pete was present during the Fraternity various shenanigans. But Pete had a wonderful GPA. Pete even minored in psychology. He was shown using a 3-D printer to mold a specific part of his body so that he could quickly get done and continue his day and get to class. While the rest on the Fraternity was left to wait for their molds to cement. He even stated “You guy should really see the type of technology we have at our disposal if you all just go to class.” Later in the film Pete is even question for missing an important Fraternity meeting because he had an interview. And that’s what makes Pete different from the rest of the Fraternity. The fact that he will put his education which is more important before the Fraternity. Pete understood that the social aspect of college, the one everyone conforms to only last for four years. That important factor is want is the flaw in my ideology of “conforming/role play” in college. When the subject realizes that he or she is only going to be able to live their lifestyle choice for the four years that they are in college. At that point the see the ultimate truth and hopefully they become able to sole focus on their personally college education because they realize that the only reason they are at college is to get a college education. Linking “Neighbors” to Let“Black Stereotyping in a University Population” and “Race Relations on Campus” I would like to change the readers focus to African Americans on college campuses dealing with the same problem discussed earlier being conforming and role playing. Being that the reader should recognize that a certain level of conforming to a “role” on a college campus could be a heck of a lot harder and that person doing so might have to deal with more hecklers if the subject is African American. Garf would be a character to focus on in the movie. Garf is an African American male in what is presumed to be an IFC Fraternity and especially due to recent events regarding an IFC fraternity SAE that certainly raise some eyebrows. On campus playing that “role” gives you the label of “that Fraternity’s black guy.” Which in turn might make that African American the butt or punching bag of most of the Fraternity’s jokes regarding race. In my articles I researched peoples views of African Americans on campus was put into a statistic and it was shown that people and most definitely Fraternity men view African Americans negatively. That can effect African Americans ability to be successful if they are constantly dodging verbal threats.

Citations:

"Race Relations on Campus" The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education No. 44 (Summer, 2004), pp. 134-135 Published: The JBHE Foundation

"Black Stereotyping in a University Population" Peter B. Wood and Michele Chesser Sociological Focus Vol. 27, No. 1 (February 1994), pp. 17-34, Published: Taylor and Francis Ltd.