I’m now in my junior year, and I now have freedom in choosing what classes I want to take. There are no more mandatory gen-eds or core classes in my major that I don’t enjoy. The classes have content that is both interesting and exciting to me.

I expect the people around me to also be excited. Yet even as a junior, I see people not trying to learn the content — either they are just trying to get through the course with a good grade, or they end up not caring about the course.

As students, we definitely are affected by what we see other people doing around us. This is why going to the library helps people study more. Even though students could probably find a similar quiet place somewhere else, the library provides little to no distractions and surrounds students with many others who at least seem to be hard at work.

Now, even though I would prefer for everyone to be excited about the courses they take, I understand why some people aren’t. Everyone can’t choose their one true passion as their major, and that’s understandable. However, the bigger issue is how publicized this seems to be.

Students almost seem to be showing off how much they procrastinate. They tell their friends how they have a paper due in a day and just laugh about it. While they probably do realize the severity of their situation, just by telling other people how they are waiting, they spread the idea that it is okay.

This atmosphere of procrastination helps to create a University culture where people find it acceptable to not take their schoolwork seriously. It seems to create this culture where people would rather get good grades or just push off their work instead of trying to study their major.

Instead of absorbing the information and trying to retain it, students are doing everything in their power just to get the grade, even if that means coming out of a class having learned nothing. This culture is the opposite of what you want a learning environment to be like.

Everyone should recognize the reason behind why we come to college — it’s to set us up for our futures by meeting new people and by learning things about a major that we want to pursue for the rest of our lives. By making it seem like all college students push off their work, the culture shifts to almost the opposite of that where people are not moving toward this goal.

Especially in college where everyone is allowed to choose their major, I feel like I’ve been let down by how the college environment should be. People can do their assignments whenever they want. However, they should understand that college is for learning and for giving students the keys to success, and by ruining that culture, we take a step back from what college is supposed to be.

Sriram is a junior in Engineering.

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