By Naomi Yee
Before I was a Greyhound, I was a New Mexico State Aggie.
Due to a change in my major, I transferred to Eastern New Mexico University in the fall of 2011.
Because ENMU wasn’t the first university I attended; I compare it to NMSU quite frequently.
In my two years here, I have concluded that ENMU lacks the professional atmosphere that NMSU has and holds in high regard.
One area where this is especially noticeable to me is the activities that take place on campus.
The king and queen elections during this homecoming season are, in my opinion, a high-school activity.
I failed to understand the point of king and queen elections even while in high school—by no means do I see the point of them at a university level.
The time spent in college is meant to build a professional resume and prepare students to live, work and thrive in the professional world.
How do king and queen elections contribute? They don’t.
I highly doubt that a future employee would ever care if you were homecoming queen or king while you were in college. Such an “accomplishment” wouldn’t even go on a resume.
I don’t think that college should be all work and no play, but I do think that the “play” funded by the school needs to be age appropriate and have substance.
Few things are more bothersome than seeing chalked reminders to vote, and seeing signs hung up in various buildings that say something along the lines of, “Since you’re voting for the stadium, don’t forget to vote for….”
There is too much work put into the campaigning for the crowns that have a fleeting glory.
I went to the homecoming game last year, and I saw the homecoming king and queen. However, I cannot remember their faces—let alone their names.
How is it that this one event can get so much attention and involvement from students, while things that are of more importance are shoved aside?
Students, faculty, and administrators need to focus on retention rates, graduation rates, the quality of education, the vote for the new stadium, and funding for the renovation of the library.
These are the issues that should be advertised campus wide but often times aren’t.
The longer I am a student of ENMU, the more I realize there is too much emphasis on frivolous activities and not enough focus on academia and preparation for the “real world.”
Isn’t giving students a taste of the real world the whole point of college? I would love to see this campus be transformed into a professional university—a university that students, like myself, can be proud to one day call their alma mater.