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We want uncool, quirky class of '10

S&B Editorial Staff

Grinnell recently cracked into a new set of rankings. Congratulations, Grinnellians. You now attend one of America's top 50 colleges. According to Cosmo Girl magazine. Needless to say, this could mean trouble lurks in the entering class.

The Office of Admissions is currently sifting its way through the final applications of what will become the class of 2010. This moment gives curmudgeonly seniors and curmudgeonly-seniors-in-training our annual chance to lament at how much has changed since we arrived and to hope, ever so feebly, that the apparent qualitative changes to Grinnell's social fabric aren't so bad as we think.

Grinnell's supposed to be a school where students go against the grain, but each successive class seems to be getting more glitzy and "with it." Even the anti-cell phone old guard has given up and gone wireless. We admit, this does have its benefits. Just please don't admit students who show Blackberry or SMS-in-class tendencies. And let any mention in the admissions essay of the dastardly Ugg boots/mini-skirt combo merit immediate disqualification.

Please admit the students who are actually non-conformists. Wearing an Ugg boot as a hat, for example, would be acceptable. We would like the applicants who are attracted to Grinnell because they want to improve our world by taking action, not just to spend four years getting action at Harris.

We know that the administration would love to attract even higher-performing students to Grinnell so we can stand toe-to-toe with those frequently mentioned "peer institutions." There's nothing wrong with our students testing like Ivy Leaguers. We just don't want to act like them.

More than anything, this may be a plea for our current students to return to the old school pleasures of Grinnell. We, not the still-hypothetical entering class, are obviously the ones guilty of abandoning the proud traditions of campus unity. Instead of forming endless quirky campus groups with inexplicably high membership, many among us are fans of reality TV. The class of 2010 should turn us back around, a class unafraid to participate in our giant campus cookie that we've so carelessly allowed to crumble.

At least, please, please, don't let them have heard of us through Cosmo Girl.

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