Now I know that we at the Lawrentian are always calling for things, or demanding stuff. And I’m not going to pretend that I’m not about to do the same thing, but I hope that by leveling with you I can put you off guard for a few seconds. So here we go:
We should get rid of super senior status. Academically, it doesn’t make any difference whether you’re a senior or a super senior. To my knowledge, there are no “super senior standing required” classes in the course catalog. It certainly won’t earn you any extra respect at a college where, as most of us already know, some people choose super seniorness and some have super seniorness thrust upon them.
When does super senior status matter? Well, the housing lottery, mostly. There are a lot of problems with the way housing is run at Lawrence – though after three years as a king of housing I can’t personally complain –but the dominance of super seniors, who get a bracket all to themselves, is among the most bothersome.
As deliciously elitist as it is to give us super seniors an advantage over those lowly seniors, I don’t think we’ve merited extra consideration. Granted, many super seniors earned their status by taking gobs of AP tests or classes at a community college while still in high school, but if all that work was worth anything at all, then those students should be rewarded academically and not with little perks in their final year. Ahead from the very beginning, they’ve already had two years of enviable lottery numbers anyway.
And then there are the connies. Double-degree students work hard, or so the story goes, and I’d bet that most of them are in the same boat as the high school overachievers I mentioned above. Many of them have better parking, and better housing, for most of their time at Lawrence.
There’s no reason that should last forever. Once we’re seniors, we should stay seniors, whether we consider ourselves super or super-duper or what-have-you. I propose equality instead of privilege – whether that’s realistic or idealistic or idiotic, I’ll let you decide. It just seems fair to me.
Abolish super seniors
