Silly Kelley kids

I’ve been in quite a few of the different schools here at IU, but it’s the Kelley School of Business classes that stand apart from all the rest.

It’s in these rooms that I’m constantly reminded that some of our generation’s future business leaders are crazier than anyone living in Collins LLC, a dorm where people perform magic in the yard.

As a major turned minor, I’ve taken several classes in Kelley, and each one has had a similar situation: a student sense of entitlement.

Last week a professor of mine suggested to the 150-plus students that we can use notes on the last part of our upcoming exam. It was a kind gesture from the professor, something to which we weren’t entitled. Many students took it with excitement.

Then a few hands shot up. One student complained it wasn’t fair to allow the use of notes, as he didn’t need them and that it would be an unfair advantage for everyone else. Mind you, there are no limited number of A’s in the class. Every student could potentially get a 4.0 in the course.

Another student then complained that the physical act of taking out notes — removing a notebook from a backpack — would cause her undue distraction and harm her grade. This only seems to happen within the walls of the building at the corner of 10th Street and Fee Lane.

I have my own weird concepts about education; I think it’d be great for IU to cull out the weakest 10th of an incoming class via physical challenges. There’s just something so bizarre about how my fellow students in business act like they’re owed something by the school. I can still remember a girl behind me in macroeconomics fighting for the professor to change the date of the final because she needed to get to the beaches of Florida as soon as possible.

Maybe it’s the stress of I-Core wearing away at their sanity. On the same day I first mentioned, a student freaked out over seemingly nothing and started to call our professor a liar for subtly making fun of him specifically through class examples. As I texted my friend to tell him I loved him in case things went violent, I said to myself, “Oh business school, you’re creating the next generation of crazies to run our corporations.” People asked how Bernie Madoff could even attempt such a ridiculous stunt. I think he simply broke down studying for a hard midterm in college and became tainted.

Some of these students are my friends, and I have no doubt they’ll be excellent businessmen. But someday the Feds will take them away for insider trading or running down Wall Street naked.


E-mail: cquandt@indiana.edu