Oh, this is just ridiculous. Please tell me this is satire.
After recent approval by Associate Dean of the College Thomas A. Dingman ’67, other members of the Dean’s office, and all 12 House Masters, a new student service is sweeping onto campus. Dormaid, founded by Michael E. Kopko ’07, is a cleaning service that allows students to avoid the perennial problem of dingy, smutty, questionably-habitable rooms. But as appealing as the thought of a perpetually tidy room may be, (independent of family visits), Dormaid could potentially mess up as many rooms as it cleans. By creating yet another differential between the haves and have-nots on campus, Dormaid threatens our student unity.There are already plenty of services at Harvard that sharpen the differences between socioeconomic classes. Harvard Student Agency Cleaners, for example, lets some students pick up clean and neatly-folded clothes in crackling plastic bags. The less well-off among us, however, make semi-weekly journeys to the basement with bulging mesh laundry bags and quarters in hand...while class differences are a fact of life—yes, there are both rich and poor people at Harvard—there is no reason to exacerbate these differences further with a room-cleaning service.
Dorm life is one of the few common experiences left that all students, regardless of class or background, have to endure with a measure of equality. The egalitarian nature of dorm life helps to foster a sense of collegiate camaraderie, an unadulterated respect for peers; it generates a level playing field that encourages learning between people of all upbringings. A service like Dormaid can bring many levels of awkwardness into this picture. For example, do two people sharing a double split the cost? What if one wants the service and the other does not? What if one cannot afford it?
If this is not satire - and I'm 65% convinced that it is ("crackling plastic bags" seems like a giveaway) - I'm a tad surprised that the authors don't give Harvard students credit for the intelligence to figure out a solution to the question of "do two people sharing a double split the cost?" Are we supposed to believe that Tomorrow's Leaders would be stymied by a situation that your local community college grad would deal with in a skinny minute?
Hey, Harvard Men, if you want to expand your brains a bit - and get better chicks - either clean up your rooms yourselves or figure out a way to pay someone else to do it. Either way, the ladies will be more impressed by that than if you sit around in the clutter and pontificate that your pigsty is fostering "a sense of collegiate camaraderie."
Oh, and if this is satire - bravo. Every site I've seen linking to it is taking this high-minded diatribe seriously.
Posted by kswygert at March 14, 2005 04:55 PM