Nyack College

Date: Feb 08 2013
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
Let me begin by saying that there are countless reasons why Nyack College is one of the worst places to be, let alone receive an education, if you are a normal, realistic, well-adjusted adolescent. I have attended Nyack for 2 years and there is about a handful of positive things I could say about this institution, compared to the incalculable number of negatives aspects associated with life at Nyack. I am certain that I'm not the only current student who feels this strongly about these issues, just one of the few who are willing to voice my opinions.

The ultimate goal of college is to prepare an individual to succeed in the real world. This is where I feel Nyack College's biggest flaw arises. Nyack College is filled with close-minded, hypocritical, border-line brainwashed individuals. This wretched majority includes faculty, staff and students. Sometimes I feel as if Nyack is attempting to build a Utopian society, where all non-Christians are eliminated. If you attend Nyack and you are not super Christian, you are frowned upon by your peers and by Nyack employees. Students at Nyack College are oblivious to the real world, the only world that exists to them is the twisted, biased perspective depicted by the Nyack community. Since higher education is designed to prepare an individual for a career and the real world, how is one attending this institution expected to gain necessary knowledge when life in and out of the classroom is skewed. A faculty member once told my class to never do business with non-Christians, because they cannot be trusted. The worst part about this is that I was the only person in the classroom shocked by this extremely stereotypical comment. Are you supporting the idea of trusting/not trusting somebody based solely on their religion? I once had a staff member at Nyack dig thru my garbage in search for alcohol containers, along with searching my dorm room when I was not present, seeking alcohol containers. This extensive search was most likely due to me being an athlete at Nyack College, since athletes are frowned upon by many in the distorted Nyack community. Now the staff members declared that Nyack was a dry campus and drinking is not something good Christians participate in, yet they are digging through my garbage and going out of their way to get me in trouble. This act of digging though one's garbage and decisively going out of their way to get one in trouble seems to be much more of a moral violation than a college kid having a few drinks with his friends on a weekend. Separate from these 2 incidents, I was found to be in possession of alcohol under "suspicion" and "dishonesty" as the formal letter I received from Nyack claimed, although this entire incident is crooked, we will talk about that later. Furthermore, I was sentenced to 1 semester probation. Along with this sentence I was threatened with having my parents informed, 15 hours of community service and I would have to attend a few Alcoholics Anonymous meetings (AA). I nearly fell out of my chair with laughter upon hearing these possible consequences. First off, my parents are an average American couple with somewhat normal lives. They realize that teenage drinking occurs, especially in the college environment and are perfectly content with me consuming alcohol moderately, as most parents should be. By informing them of my little incident what did you expect to happen? Maybe they would have given me a timeout or made my bed time earlier than usual, I am sure that would make me never want to drink again. Next, how would I look attending AA meetings as a college kid who drinks once or twice a week? I would be looked at as if I had 3 heads. Forcing me to attend AA meetings as a college student who drinks a handful of times a month, yet I will be sitting next to individuals who destroyed families, relationships and even lives as a result of alcohol. Am I really in the same boat as these people? And in the eyes of the Nyack community, the unfortunate answer to this question is yes; yes I am in the same boat as these people. This is almost cruel and unusual punishment. Nyack College has one of the most tenacious anti-alcohol policies in America. In a society where alcohol is just as common as water, how is completely eliminating alcohol from the environment going to benefit anybody? I am not saying that alcohol is a must, but the current policy is grossly exaggerated. Finally, completely eliminating alcohol from any college is virtually impossible, so it would be much more suitable if these efforts were channeled towards other activities, such as improving the school or improving the school social life. There is just absolutely nothing to do at Nyack, and personally being this bored on a Saturday night drives me more towards drug and alcohol use, not away from it.

Next, what college does not allow you to have a person of the opposite sex in the room at your will? This is just absurd. If I were to stand in Times Square and randomly tell people walking by that I attend a college where I am not allowed to have a female in my room, they would give me an odd look and laugh at the outrageousness of this rule. However, this rule is easily accepted as part of everyday life throughout the Nyack community. This gives one an idea of just how unrealistic and isolated the Nyack community truly is. Another popular complaint in the "Nyack world" is the ruckus over parking tickets. Nyack gives out parking tickets for doing basically anything besides leaving your car parked in its one and only designated spot. People have received tickets for driving their cars to class or backing your car into a spot as opposed to parking nose first. Nyack then addressed this issue as stating Nyack is a "walking campus" and that one's car is only permitted to be parked in its designated lot. Now what is the point to even having a car if I cannot drive it anywhere? In addition to this, where in the world do the millions of dollars Nyack College receives from its students go? The total cost of attending Nyack and living on campus is around $30,000, let it be noted that this is brutally overcharging people. Nyack receives millions of dollars every year yet they have nothing to show for it. The campus is days away from turning to dust, The dorms look like they are from 1882, the technology is equivalent to that of the mid 1990's, the cafeteria food is barley edible and the athletic teams receive a microscopic portion of this goldmine. Nyack should stop giving the student's money away to people who do not deserve it and start using these funds to improve their makeshift institution.

Nyack College prides itself on providing a "Christian environment". This is just a way of sugar coating a name given to a method of brainwashing. This "Christian environment" does not introduce individuals to Christianity; it shoves it down their throat. Between being forced to go to chapel, dysfunctional yet mandatory theology courses and the amount of biased, close-minded comments I hear from students trying to force me to become a "good Christian", whatever that is, there is barley room to breathe. The whole reason for the founding of the United States of America was to allow individuals to practice the religion of their choice, without being judged. However, centuries later, the Nyack community still does not partake in this idea of not judging people based on their beliefs. If you attend Nyack and you are not super Christian, you are seen as a bad person. Meanwhile in reality, you are just as entitled to be an atheist as you are to be super Christian, or anything in between. Also, so many students are relentlessly hypocritical. I have seen students that are ministry majors, on chapel team, and in class claiming how they are such a "good Christian", yet I go out on a weekend and I witness these same students drinking liquor, getting high and having sex. In an unbiased view, this makes them much more of a worse person than me, pretending to be something they are not, at least I am honest about who I really am. Christians claim to be accepting of everyone, yet what if an individual is gay, then where is the acceptance by the Christian community? Furthermore, what type of community is more accepting towards a rapist or a convicted felon than it is towards an atheist? Now I am neither a Christian nor an atheist, but this is absolutely ludicrous. Your behavior determines what type of person you truly are, not your beliefs.

College students are going to have sex and college students are going to drink, regardless of the rules. It is a shame that Nyack is far more concerned with preventing sex and alcohol consumption than it is with improving their unkempt college. One can only wonder what Nyack would be like if the same amount of time, focus and money was directed towards improving the campus and academic standards.