The Work of the University

by Don Rey

     The University of Connecticut is an academic community in which students participate in the exchange of knowledge and experience. Each student has a different idea about the work of the university in his or her own life. Each student also contributes in his or her own way to the university. This give and take system is what makes up the Uconn community and makes it unique from other universities.

     I believe that, in my life, the work of the University is based on future success. I believe this is true for many students attending the University of Connecticut. However, success has different meanings for different people. That which constitutes my definition of success may differ slightly or totally from other peoples’ ideas of success. There are three basic measures of success in my definition. I see success as happiness, security, and the ability to support myself and my family. They each link together in some ways, and also contain in themselves different ideas of success.

     I would very much like to be happy in and enjoy my future career. This would result from being involved in a job that I do not fear and would not regret accepting. This may be a difficult goal to achieve, but the University of Connecticut will assist me in reaching it. Security is based on two aspects, mainly. The stability of my job and career is one of these. Through my education at Uconn, I am aiming for a career that will not be a lasting one. I hope to earn a degree at Uconn that will help me obtain a secure job with little threat of downsizing or other problems. Money also has some importance to me. I hope for, but will not limit myself to a profitable career beyond college. The ability to support myself and my present and future family is extremely important to me. This does not necessarily in reference to monetary support, but rather the understanding of how to support myself on my own and my family with some help. I want to learn the life skills at the University of Connecticut that will help me to make healthy, rewarding decisions about my future and about my family.

     In my opinion, the work of the university is to prepare me and the other students with the skills to continue on in that which each individual chooses to pursue after college. These skills are immensely different for every individual, and this is what makes it more challenging, but also more interesting and enjoyable for the professors and educators at the University of Connecticut. This difference is also a difference in goals, expectations, needs, and personalities for each and every individual at the university, and is part of what contributes to the community here.

     The individual students at Uconn play a very important role in university life. They make up most of university life, but also contribute more. They each bring, from their homes and hometowns, their own set of values and ideas, and their own bank of knowledge. When this is shared with the professors and students, inside or out of the classroom, it adds to the diversity and overall community of the university.

      I believe that as an individual I can bring my set of values, ideas, and knowledge to the university and share it with those I come in contact with. The difference a single person makes can rarely be measured in any way at such a large university, but is important nonetheless. I will add to the diversity of the university. One needs not be a minority to contribute to the diversity of a campus. My personality is completely different from anyone on campus, even those most similar to me. The many individuals at Uconn are who make up the community here. They have just as much to offer the university as the university will offer the individual.

     I believe that the work of the university is to give the individual shape for the future, and that the work of the individual is to give the university shape in the form of a community. This opinion in itself may be debated or accepted by other individuals who read it.