Luke Buehler
Business Manager
luke.buehler7156@mb.rctc.edu
First: Pay cash for school.
Privilege does not exist. Never has. It’s fake news. It’s just about as real and as scary as the boogeyman. Sure, some students come from nice backgrounds. I didn’t as much as some of the student folk I know. I don’t care.
Now that doesn’t change the fact that some faculty at this school don’t see past their own nose, but that’s beside the point. Yes, pay your cash for school. If you can deliver pizzas, you can afford to pay cash for school.
Do you know why college is so expensive in the first place? When the federal government goes ahead and pays for anything (in this case through a guaranteed student loan program) at the time the product (education) is demanded, they artificially drive up the number of people who want the product. Thus, to equalize this transition, the price of college skyrocketed.
We need to go back to the way things were before idiotic liberal lawmakers screwed this up. Pay cash bills for school. Bring back the old days when borrowing for school was never an option. Besides, then when you graduate, you no longer have to worry about the demonic student loans that become so much of a burdensome worry. Just ask your professors. They’ll agree with me on a personal level, those who have student loans.
They’ll also probably publicly hate me for writing this. I love that.
Second: Pick a degree that you enjoy that also will pay you well.
Seems like common sense, right? Because it is! Yeah, if you like the health field, you’re in luck. They’re hiring at Mayo. All the time. Like to work with cars? You have a career yesterday if you complete the auto mechanics program. Love people? Human Resources. Fighting crime? Criminal Justice. Drawing and design? CAD. Actually crafting products? Precision Manufacturing Technology. Yes, equal opportunity. For everyone here!
Not equal outcome, though. In a capitalistic world, we don’t all make the same amount of money. That’s called socialism. And that’s the ugly stepchild of communism. This isn’t Russia. Get a solid education that you pay for in cash,and tthen graduate and make a huge return on your investment in you. It’s the first step in the American Dream. And the first step is always the hardest.
Third: You make the call. No one else.
That’s why they call it your success. Everyone wants the prize, but very, very few are willing to work for it. No one really knows the immense pressure and pain it takes to reach the top except those people who got there.
Do you really think Michael Jordan became a multimillionaire by eating Oreos in his mom’s basement? I can tell you from experience that doesn’t make you a multimillionaire. The caveman never waited for the government to deliver his social security check. He had to go out, kill something, and drag it home. Again, you determine your destiny. This isn’t Russia. Or China. Or North Korea. We still live in the best darn country on Earth.
Last: Stay away from the politics here. They suck.
Yeah, it’s actually just a number’s game. The folks who run the show around here don’t really care about you. To them, you’re just a number on an Excel spreadsheet. Now, I like numbers when they represent money, not people. At least, not the way they are handled around here. How many administrators do you see greeting students as they walk in the door each morning? Or how many professors do you see eating with students during lunch?
OK, some of that is just the way the culture is around here, but the “student retention factor” is a real thing to the top dogs here. Again, they want you to stay here and pay them tuition money. It’s that simple. Avarice? Possibly. Probably. Depends on who you ask, really.
That’s what makes the environment here so impersonal. But there is one woman I believe in who doesn’t fit this stereotype: Mary Davenport. Mary and I met and talked earlier in the year. I have good feelings about Mary. Not that it says much since speculation is a poor form of investment and an equally poor form of politics. But who am I kidding. Mary, you rock!
Mary will keep it real, and she’ll put things into perspective for you. She’s actually honest Û as honest as a preacher. And if you stop in her office (second floor of Student Services), she will always have a smile waiting for you. And believe me, she will make time for you around her schedule.
I don’t view Mary as a politician of this campus, but rather a woman who views us as real human beings, not numbers, publicly. Again, Mary really cares. It actually makes me happy to know that we do have a new president who really cares about us here. And I’ve got this feeling that she’ll make RCTC great again.