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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 3, 1987)
Campus life in France differs from that at American schools Family ties reinforced by weekly visits home By Katherine Merten Of the Kmrralri Imagine a college campus without a student union, with no frat houses, no bookstore. A campus that consists of one dorm, two dining halls and a conglomeration of covered cor ridors that connect classrooms. During the week, students crowd the halls, smoke between classes and talk during boring lectures, dome Thursday night, however, the noise stops, classrooms empty, doors shut. Campus remains unofficially closed until Monday morning classes. This description of a French university is different than the popular American college setting. The French, however, may be equally Reporter’s Notebook surprised to find a campus with Friday night keggers and frisbee games on the grass. For the French, the big step of leaving home after high school doesn’t exist. Americans see going off to college as an 18-year-old as a con tinuation of higher education; but it is also a symbolic break between adolescence and adulthood, naivete and maturity, dependence and independence. In France, however, col lege means courses, and that's about it. Entering college as an American teenager often involves leaving home for the first time, developing new interests and creating a social network away from the family. French students, on the other hand, manage to attend the university while remaining attached to their families. Because most French students enroll in the closest university in their geographic region, they are physically closer to their families and hometowns than most American students. For lodging during the week, students live in dorms or apartments near school, but by Fri day night they usually have taken a train back home or have been picked up by their parents. Whether due to a need of money, food or clean clothes or due to strong traditional values of family unity, France's students rarely stay on campus for the weekend. Even during the week the dorms remain quiet, with individual doors closed and no phone calls after 9 p.m. Such a temporary campus population makes the American phenomenon of "school spirit" impossible. With a diminished student body on the weekends, the French campus is left with few people who can work on a school newspaper, form a hiking club or join cheerleading. Certain athletic facilities am located on cam pus. One fellow American described the weight room at the Unversity of Poitiers as a "12th century arrangement of ropes and pulleys.” To an American, such accommodations for a nine-month period differ markedly from the legendary "dorm life" of midnight pizza par ties and social shindigs. If dorms don’t provide the college social life, a normal impulse might lie to turn to the frater nity and sorority houses. Wrong. French students think the "Greek system" is some part of the classics department. The Greek system at the heart of much weekend activity on Fast 11th Street in Eugene has no significance whatsoever in the country of the Champs Elysees. However. French students do party — a behavior that undoubtedly exists cross culturally. Rather than heading to the Phi Delts. though, they venture downtown to bars, discos and movie theaters. In Poitiers, campus is a 45-minute walk from "centre ville," and bus service ends at 9 p.m. Without a car or a good pair of shoes and a lot of energy living on campus can be a very solitary experience. Another good reason, no doubt, for many French students to make their customary journeys home on weekends. One might wonder if the United States first developed the concept of a campus social en vironment, or it American students first went away to school and thus created a need for their own social entity. France, a country which places great impor tance on family unity and encourages its youth to attend universities geographically close to home, unquestionably has an interest in preserving closeness between parents and children. The American concept of a university where students attend class, eat. study and live in a close peer-oriented environment may simply he a substitution for the traditional values which draw French students home each weekend. System Continued from Page 4 Subcommittee member Tony Van Vliet, R-Corvallis, was a member of the legislative com mittee that reviewed the State System’s plans for tin; computer network last spring. “There is no question that higher ed. needs an improved computer network,” Van Vliet said. Legislators are now trying to determine what up-front costs the computer network will require in the next two years, and then decide whether to cut the computer network’s fun ding, said Van Vliet. Thursday, Lemman would not reveal the figures he was planning to present to the sub committee today. Hut lit; said if thi? subcommit tee decides to postpont! the computer network, students “will keep going over to Mac Court to register for a couple more years.” blUntWIUb SALE Everything in store 50% TO 70% OFF! Bttigl/ f h| /'hop 13th & Lawrence St • 683 1300 university SUNNY SERVICE Foreign & Domestic Cars Specializing in Volvo and Volkswagen • Major & Minor Repairs • ASE Certified Technicians 1905 Agate St. • 344-0869 Just a few blocks from campus on the corner of Agate and 19th SHARE A RIDE HEADED FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL? The Graduate Exam Preparation Program offered through Academic learning Services is getting rave reviews! 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