Meeting 'others': The other reason to go to college

Multiculturalism is the extra credit in your tuition rates

Photo credit: Ryoji Iwata/Unsplash

The psychology instructor asked the lecture hall students to speak up about a point he’d made in his presentation. I looked around at more than 80 or so students who were taking way too long to respond to his question, and my arm shot up. I rattled off a bunch of statistics on what he’d written in his PowerPoint presentation, challenging one of his points.

“You’d have to be blind not to see that,” I added at the end.

Then I heard the gasps. My argument wasn’t disrespectful to the instructor; it just backed up something else I’d noted during our assigned reading. It was the last line that made other students react like that, but I meant no harm.

However, right in the front row sat a woman who was legally blind, and I know that student heard me. I wanted to evaporate out of the room like liquid nitrogen. Instead I sat there, cringing in my seat. My roommate’s ex-boyfriend sat next to me and patted my leg sympathetically. No matter what amount my student loans and grants paid for, that was a long-lasting lesson that was not covered under my tuition.

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On occasion, I’ll browse through back-and-forth bickering from people who just don’t understand the point of college. They’ll point to millionaires, billionaires and other entrepreneurs who were successful without the degree. Their points are valid. But my response is always the same.

“You’re going to learn things in college that you just would not have to face in everyday life and probably not in Corporate America — unless your job is so diverse that you wouldn’t have a choice.”