Recently I was watching an interview of Dave Chappelle, who has faded from the public consciousness after fleeing the burdens of being an American cultural icon.
The interviewer asked him about his education. Chappelle said that he was actually the first person in his family not to go to college, and the first one who had "not been a slave."
Some of the audience laughed, implying a different interpretation of his comment, but Chappelle did not even smile.
I believe he was suggesting something more profound.
No, the university system is not exactly a slave system. But I do contend that the university system is in a conflicted, wrongful era.
What was the original purpose of universities? According to an early brochure of Harvard College, which is considered America's first university, it was "to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity."
Not anymore. Today, career preparation is the vanguard of higher education.
Universities bring in swarms of eager 18-year-olds and probe them to determine whom they would like to serve and what they would like to "do" for the rest of their lives. Then they choose the designated major for that career.
During a conversation with my adviser, I inquired about adding a second major in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. I was quickly shot down.
"So I wouldn't be able to stay an extra two semesters to complete an additional major?" I asked.
"Most likely not," my adviser told me.
I felt like a worthless, indeterminate sheep being rushed through the system by my own university.
Well, UF is crowded, I reasoned. But then I heard about the new spring and summer program UF is installing in an attempt to house more students.
Still, UF is not to blame.
In a world ruled by money and power, tight budgets hurt competition with other universities that have less students and greater endowments.
The result is a Bachelor's degree factory that pumps out students who face grossly packed classrooms and stringent course options.
In the past, only the brightest young minds attended college.
Now, college is the standard path laid out for young adults to assure a stable career.
Even more to the contrary, we often witness the brightest young entrepreneurs drop out of college to focus on developing their products.
I do not mean to say that widespread education does not benefit mankind; clearly it does. But learning is not the priority for most - maintaining a high GPA is.
A student must maintain a high GPA and/or connect with the appropriate persons to land their dream job of manipulating money for faceless millionaires as an investment banker.
It is not reasonable to expect such students to take an interesting yet difficult course if they are not required.
The phrase "I hate this class" and statements describing class material as "stupid" or "useless" are so common that they are assumed.
But if we don't take these "stupid" and "useless" classes, how else will we land our insipid, life-sucking jobs?
Okay, I know, this isn't "American Beauty." It's real life; we have to work to survive, and universities can still help us pursue, explore and understand our interests.
But in moving towards vocationalism, universities have put the intellectual, social and personal growth of their matriculates on the back burner.
Abdul Zalikha is an microbiology junior at UF. His column appears on Thursdays.
