by Ben Canning
The other day I had dinner with a friend and we started talking about how Stanford is different. She is originally from Chicago and has frequently told stories of how her friends from home tease her for being so Californian, while her friends from here tease her for being so Chicagoan. However, this evening the discussion followed the train of thought “Only at Stanford.” In this case, it seemed that only at Stanford was it possible to have every waking moment of your day be involved in a single institution.
If people aren’t busy with academics then it’s a student group, starting an organization, or participating in some other on campus activity. While she was abroad in Spain last quarter she felt like an adult. She didn’t live, eat, breathe, and sleep this Cardinal life. In Spain she was responsible for her daily life. She cooked, cleaned, and went into the city on a regular basis where she could interact with normal people. Coming back to Stanford she felt like a kid. Dinner was served by the dining halls, dorms were cleaned by custodial staff, utility bills were non-existent, and an extensive support network was always in place to make sure that she did not fall through the cracks. She didn’t feel responsible for life and it gave her the impression that Stanford produces socially inept people. It’s not that Stanford students are unable to talk to others, express their ideas, or make friends, it’s that they are not prepared to survive in the real world where dining halls, custodial staff, and an elaborate residential and academic support network do not exist.
Her comments seemed to strike home. As an RA in an all-frosh dorm I am consistently fighting a losing battle with my residents to impress upon them a sense of ownership. Frosh will have gold fish fights and leave the crumbs everywhere, leave cups, beer cans, and plates in the hallways only to have them disappear in the morning thanks to William our custodian. I used to attribute this to the general principle of tragedy of the commons and diffused responsibility, but in light of her comments, I am more inclined to see these effects as a part of a larger phenomenon, The Stanford Bubble.
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