School Spirit [Discussion]

[decadence]

(serious thread).
Okay, this is something I've thought of for a while. In N. America there is so much more school spirit than in, say, European countries viz. Britain as well as others. In the UK, universities are almost seen as drive-thru; you get your degree from an interchangeable university which is hopefully fairly high in the league tables - not caring too much about the institution you're in while reading for your degree - and then you leave (Oxford/Cambridge possible exceptions here). And, that's it. Little or no alumni involvement. Over here the concept of donating to one's alma mater is not widespread. The US Carnegie Foundation's President (current?) Vartan Gregorian (I believe he was formerly pres. of Brown's University too), said in a paper
that the whole idea in Europe remains that the state is responsible for the progress of society in contrast to America where they tend to hold that progress is the responsibility of everybody, not just government. Consequently, investing in education through alum donations is "foreign".
Certainly in the USA, the universities are often beautiful campuses with modern, well equipped buildings whereas in the UK they often have dated drab concrete structures due to funding issues. To iterate, the thought of contributing to it financially does not occur. We have lobbying of government for greater investment in higher education, I wonder if energies would be better focused on culture change.
Even at High School level, in the USA there are, for example, high school rings - here there is no such thing. And often in the USA you might, I believe, see folks on campi wearing university branded stuff; here that is rare. This isn't just about money issues, it's school spirit generally, there's an idea here of university being like school - you go there, come home do homework, repeat and eventually don't have to go there anymore. I wonder if it is because of sports? Collegiate football in the States is massive obviously and perhaps being proud of one's team has a trickle down effect to being proud of the university? Certainly in local US papers they always have news of local school/college sports whereas in England if they do it's really half-assed and there is *no* practice of tracking promising athletes in print. I don't even know if my university has an official song - I strongly doubt it. Thing like that.

This is something I've thought about quite a bit, I'd be really interested to hear the thoughts of those across the pond on why they do feel a connection to their university particularly after they leave as well as while students.

- Richard