Okay, here it is, I just gotta say it... if there's one thing I don't like about Germany, it's the socialist attitudes. Especially at the university. I'm really rather baffled by it and am considering doing further research into this phenomenon during the break.
Elections took place this week at the university for student parliament. What exactly said parliament does or how much power they have, I'm not so sure. I am actually researching this at the moment so that I can write about it at my job. But, interestingly, student parliament elections work just like regular elections here - that is, you don't vote for a person, you vote for a party, and then each party can select a number of representatives to sit in the parliament according to the percentage of the vote that party received. At the university, they don't really have parties, but instead there are "lists" which appear to be about the same thing, but most are much more specialized. There are all kinds of "lists". First of all, there are lists that are associated with the major political parties in Germany, more or less the "Young Democrats", "Young Republicans", "Young Socialists", "Young Libertarians" and "Young Greens". Then there are a number of lists that represent specific majors or areas of study--the med students have one, law students, econ, history, philosophy, etc. Then are other special interest type ones, for gays, lesbians (yes they are separate groups here!), feminists, ethnic minorities, students who have a child, etc., as well as groups fighting for specific issues, primarily students against semester fees.
Basically all of them are incredibly left-ward leaning. The only ones that really aren't are the "Young Republicans" and "Young Libertarians", but they had very little advertising, and other lists actually put out flyers bashing them (as well as the other ones that are tied to political parties). Today, as I was researching all of this (to try to find out what in the world the student parliament actually does, how much power it has, etc. and also to investigate student opinions about this election) for work, I read a newspaper article that upset me more than any newspaper article has upset me in a really long time. It upset me for a number of reasons: very biased handling of an issue in an article that was not written as an opinion article, one-sided interviewing, and just the general shock received when one discovers that the university where one is studying is known as a left-wing stronghold. And by left-wing I don't mean left-wing like we know it in America. I think a lot of Democrats would not like all this either!
I don't get it. I just don't get it. These people expect higher education to fall from the sky into their hands, they don't want to pay a dime for it (and until very recently they never had to), and yet people wonder why so many Germans leave the country to go to college and why German universities are not competitive on the international spectrum. There are many initiatives right now trying to improve the universities--initiatives to bring some level of competition into the German university system, initiatives to streamline course registration and bureaucracy issues, initiatives to standardize (to some extent) diploma requirements so that diplomas can be better understood by international employers and schools... But the students here, at least from all the talk, are so resistant to change! The new diploma requirements set some higher standards, and they say it is an infringement on their freedom. Free higher education for all! is the big campaign. They will fight to the death over these semester fees (which soooooooooo miniscule compared to what it costs to finance higher education! up until now they've gone to college 100% free!!!) and are against the concept of having some universities be better than others (and receive more funding as a reward for accomplishment), but they don't seem to care that their own university is not that good! Maybe they just don't realize it could be better, but it's still... Settling for mediocrity is AOK with them. Heaven forbid a capitalist should enter the scene and suggest some ways to bring improvement.
Higher education costs money. It's a fact. In the U.S., we have never had "free higher education" but it works just fine. If you want to study badly enough, you can. You might have to work for it, but if you've got the grades and the desire to learn, you can go to college. Here? Less than a third of teenagers attend the type of high school that allows one to even study at a university (my thoughts on the split-track high school system another day), and those kids can bust their butts and still not get into the universities because there aren't enough spots. But there's no money to open new universities or expand the ones they have! Why? Because the whole darn thing is financed by the government (i.e. by the absurdly high taxes Germans have to pay) and
controlled by the government, and the money's just not in the safe. I don't know what the motivation for these new fees was, but maybe, just maybe, they could go toward improvement of the university...
The kids at the university I attend right now probably had to go through a lot to get here. They represent a very small percentage of Germans who have the chance to study at a university. They cry "free higher education for all" but they don't realize that as long as higher education is "free" in the sense of "government financed", it will never really be free for all, and it will never be able to reach it's full potential.
I'm off my soapbox now. Just had to rant because my university is so disgustingly full of socialist this, socialist that, everything should just be free and I don't believe in that. I don't believe in forced mediocrity. Yes, I want every person to have a chance in society. But it's not happening the way the system works now, and in the meantime I really feel the achievements of so many are being stifled. This country has so much more potential.
In other news: surrived a hurricane last night! Hurricane "Kyrill" came sweeping through Germany yesterday, it was pretty crazy. I mean, I slept through it, but it was all over the news, and my Turkish class ended early yesterday because they decided to shut down the building we were in and send everyone home. On the front page of the newspaper yesterday was a weather map with big BLACK clouds sweeping in. You know that can't be good! But we survived. ;)
