The idea was simple enough: I wanted to leave school for a
while.
During my first two years at UCLA, I was unable to shake the
nagging idea, like an itch on my brain, that there was more to be
gained from this institution. I have come to understand that in the
years before ours, college was a special thing, almost regal, an
indication of orientation and purpose, and the people who went were
a caste all their own.
But now, for many (if not most) of us, continuing on to
university is the clear and distinct norm. College is “The
Path,” one that was laid out in front of me long before
kindergarten, and probably before that. From high school, I went
off to UCLA straight away simply because it was next.
It is this mentality that I was chafing against, in that UCLA
felt like high school to me, except for more drinking. There has to
be more to college than parties, 3 a.m. burritos and scraping by
with the grade. There has to be a reason that every quarter I take
enough money to feed, clothe and educate a Bolivian child for 28.7
years and give it to the UC Regents.
I decided to declare nonattendance for a quarter in an
ultimately successful attempt to get some perspective. And as one
who has done it, I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone and
everyone.
The act of declaring nonattendance for a quarter sounds like it
would be the usual kind of administrative hell, involving pink and
yellow forms, tedious petitions and excruciating essays, but is
actually remarkably simple.
It is a menu option on URSA; you select it and it’s done.
You remain an enrolled student at UCLA without attending, and the
following quarter, register for classes as if nothing had
happened.
Despite its simplicity, Associate Registrar of Enrollment and
Degree Services Cathy Lindstrom-Jacobson informed me that out of
24,811 undergraduates, only 1,388 students declared nonattendance
for the fall of 2005, and 718 for the previous spring.
Arlene Pesigan, an undergraduate counselor for the UCLA College,
told me that nonattendance is generally used by students who, for
one reason or another, cannot adequately complete their work.
“If you have personal issues going on,” she says,
“this is a useful option so you can better deal with
that.”
While I obviously couldn’t get a list of students who took
advantage of the nonattendance policy for personal reasons, I feel
comfortable imagining they are thankful for a consequence-free
solution to a serious problem. But what about those who simply want
the experience of a break and the perspective it brings?
My search took me back to the bowels of Murphy Hall where Matt
Lake, another counselor, told me that he deals with students every
day, and he thinks taking time off would be beneficial.
“Sometimes you get so burned out with classes and
exams,” he said. “You forget how good you have it. …
I certainly don’t see any problem with it.”
“Experiential learning is something more students should
do,” Lake insists.
There is so much more to experience and to learn and do than can
be had by sitting in a taupe-colored room listening to someone talk
at you. There is more to college than school, and one of the
problems with a school like UCLA is that it is easy to lose track
of that in the ocean of papers, labs and tests.
UCLA is like a freight train in that while it will get you where
you want to go, it can’t be stopped and it really
couldn’t care less whether you are onboard. Declaring
nonattendance stops the train and breaks the path. It allows you to
take the 9-to-5 job but without the pressure or consequences,
because it is only for 11 weeks, a little intermission from your
studies. It enables you to learn about things you can’t in
the classroom, about what the non-summer working world is really
like, and upon your return, can help shape your decisions in
preparation for that.
When I left, I hated my job and subsequently learned that I can
never work a job I hate no matter how much money I earn, because it
bears too close a resemblance to being dead. I started writing
about how much I hated my job, and in doing so, learned that
writing is the only academic thing I really like to do.
But most of all, I learned that being a student is amazing. Our
job here, our profession, is to learn, which truly is the good
life. And while I don’t think these are by default our best
years, I do think they are the most free, and we should never lose
sight of that.
If you don’t want to take a quarter off, that is totally
respectable. But if you want to and don’t do it because
it’s abnormal, or because it strays from the maddeningly
linear path of education, then I urge you to reconsider.
UCLA has a massive array of opportunities in addition to the
ones implicitly offered in higher education, and to not take
advantage of the school ““ and the life it allows ““
would be a shame.
Declaring nonattendance is a means to that end. It’s
impossible to get perspective on something when you’re in the
middle of it. Sometimes you have to take a step back to truly
realize what you have.
E-mail O’Bryan at jobryan@media.ucla.edu for more
information on this “good life.” Send general comments
to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.