By: Alex Sorondo / Staff Writer
To suggest that having a Gamestop on campus is in some way a threat to any student’s academic performance is as much an insult, however inadvertent, as an opinion.
It suggests that students who frequent the store, whether to buy or play video games or just stand around talking shop, are incapable of setting down a controller to study or go to class.
Considering the price they pay for their education and, for most students, the drudgery of their daily commute, the notion that they might be swayed from paying their due diligence to an exorbitantly priced and paid-for education in exchange for the fleeting delights of idling for a few hours among friends and video games does not seem far from calling them inattentive and fickle-minded.
As much a place for work as for learning, the University is also meant to be, and endorse the functioning of, a community.
Many of us, as commuters, are deprived of the conventional and idyllic college lifestyle with a transgressive dorm life full of body-substance experimentation, ramen noodles and Monday night keg stands.
Instead, we lead lives that revolve around attending class, studying, sleeping and socializing.
Therefore, it’s important that we attend a campus that is designed to cater to our education and social life alike.
Gamestop is a business, yes, but it also works as a figurative water cooler around which gamers can gather to network and relax between classes.
The availability of shrink-wrapped video games is no greater threat to a student’s performance, no greater stain on the University’s image of professionalism, than having a game room beside Chili’s, or even having televisions in the Graham Center.
For even the most die-hard gamer, the fact he or she came to school today rather than stayed home to play video games is a testament to some capacity for discipline, and probably far more than they need to resist the temptation of skipping class to stand among video games they can’t even play.
opinion@fiusm.com
About Post Author
