College Should Not be a Playground :: College Admissions Essays

College Should Not be a Playground University students today have it pretty good. At decent-sized schools, students have access to any number of low-cost services that civilians would donate organs for. We get gyms and fitness centers for free or close to it. We have computer labs, lounges and more clubs and societies arriving every semester. With little or no fees, on-campus coffee bars and pick-up basketball games make traveling into the real world increasingly ludicrous. Sure, we pay more in tuition rates to help off set the cost, but college students these days shouldn't sweat the bill's bundled-in activity fees - it's simply worth it to fork over a little extra cash for the added convenience. Besides, with college rates continually on the rise, these resource charges amount to a drop in a very large bucket. On the other hand, shouldn't a University provide for its students without bleeding them dry? After all, without the learners, the educators and administrators would be jobless. So why should students pay for access to increasingly basic and common services? Students have come to expect these tasty perks, as if our Universities owe us for passing through their hallowed halls. But have we come to expect too much? Do we truly deserve extravagant bonuses? My own school has for years given students free, unlimited, high-speed access to the Internet. All rooms in all dorms have long had an Ethernet port, intended to help us with our studies. Any student can plug in, call up the library's extensive database subscriptions, and hunt for journals, articles and other information on a boundless range of topics. Of course, with such power comes responsibility, for students can also visit the seedier and less, shall we say, academic nooks of the World Wide Web. In light of this, UMD began cracking down on Internet access and Networking capabilities on campus last year. First, the students' file-sharing capabilities were restricted. Many students grumbled, but the administration remained firm. Most recently, filters blocked the transfer of certain controversial file types. Student outcry led to a scaled-back version of the sentinel software, but the students haven't finished crusading. The school, they say, has infringed on our rights by installing restrictive programs between the Internet and us. University literature promises "free, unlimited" Internet access, and