Upperclassmen as Wikipedia

Dave’s post on the subject of freshman/upperclassman relations mentions a number of means by which underclassmen in our University can reach upperclassmen. I just so happens that, in all of my time here as an underclassman, I wasn’t involved in any of Dave’s recommendations. I came to the university without a major, and never took an introductory class. My Resident Advisor (RA) was decidedly unhelpful, being a particularly unsocial student who spent most of his time at the gym. I was never involved in a Registered Student Organization (RSO) for more than a week.

I assert, however, that some contact with upperclassmen, especially in the first year months of college, is necessary for an underclassman to be successful. My contact came when I took a job as an undergraduate research assistant at the Nuclear Radiations Laboratory, a lab on campus.

Admittedly, I didn’t come to the lab with upperclassmen dialogue in mind. I was expecting nothing more than research experience from the job. The hierarchy of the lab, however, put me in constant contact with upperclassmen also working as undergraduate workers. Superficially, this relationship was purely job-based: they explained the (relatively simple) tasks I was to perform, and I came to them if I had simple questions about the work. This, of course, was not the extent of our communication. Since I was constantly around my upperclassmen coworkers, I had numerous chances to ask questions on any topic, be it how to switch my major, or which professors I should seek out as teachers, or whether Chipotle burritos were worth the extra cost of their Qdoba counterparts. I almost always got immediate and useful information this way. (College of Engineering Deans, Professor Ruzic, absolutely yes.)

These upperclassmen contacts were invaluable my freshman year. The way I see it, a student can only be so successful seeking information from professors, advisors, etc. Having an older student to answer questions is much more effective. This effect is comparable to one of the points in our class discussion on Wikipedia. One of the reasons I believe the open-source online encyclopedia is so popular (I wanted to say “successful” here, but that’s a whole different discussion) is its transient behavior. Wikipedia is constantly being updated (as evidenced by its Recent Changes log.) Although this may be seen as a source of its potentially inaccurate information, it also allows the encyclopedia to keep up with current events much more rapidly than a more “reputable” encyclopedia can. As an example, this Wikipedia article includes information about Iran’s nuclear program, including the minor developments that happened this week. On the other hand, Encyclopedia Britannica offers only this stagnant list of articles with the same subject matter, none updated nearly as lately as Wikipedia.

The parallel isn’t perfect, but my point is that there are some situations where Wikipedia really is the most helpful, and there are some questions that are most helpfully answered by older students. Professors and other University faculty/staff sometimes have obstacles to giving helpful information:

-they didn’t go to the U of I as an undergraduate and thus don’t have the essential experience,

-they can’t “bad-talk” other professors or staff (which students are more than willing to do)

-they may worry about losing their job by being too candid

Be it through one of Dave’s processes, through an on-campus job, or some other way, I would recommend any freshman to seek out an upperclassman as an information resource.