Too often when graduating seniors write their “senior column” which is filled with the same sentiment, just worded differently: enjoy your four years here—they go by quickly.

While I would encourage you to do that, this column will not be taking that approach. Instead I feel like after four years here I’ve learned some things the “hard way” and maybe, just maybe, you can take a lesson out of my book and the remainder of your time will be just a little easier.

The most important thing I learned—and this is a lesson I learned in my first month of college—is the first jury you face in any situation when you may be “flirting with the law” is the police officer. If that particular officer feels you are not being adequately cooperative, they will cite you for disorderly conduct. Makes for a half-decent story four years later, but leaves your pockets feeling substantially lighter at the time. What to do is really your call; I just wanted you to be aware of the consequences.

While on the topic of heavy expenses and police, don’t speed on I-480. This lesson I learned about two weeks ago. The officer there will kill you with kindness—his salutation of “have a great day” seems somewhat less sincere when you look at the pamphlet he hands you and find out what you owe the city of North Olmsted. Not worth it.

Another particularly important lesson to learn is how to address professors. For example, “Dean” is not Professor Birch’s title (chair of the political science department)—it’s his first name.

So if you’re, lets say, a freshman reporter for an award-winning newspaper and you need to interview him, opening your e-mail with “Dean Birch” is surely not going to score you any points.  There was no retribution from him at the time; in fact, I’m not even sure that he noticed—but it made me feel quite awkward.

The cafeteria has so many things you need to know that I’m not sure I can fit them all in this column. Always say “hi” to Betty and Sharon—they are wonderful.  Always get a good seat; if you thought airports were a good place to people watch, you’ve either never been in Schott Dining Hall or you’re not paying attention—either way, wasted opportunity.

This last one may be the most important: never, EVER, have the chicken a la king.  When you think in your mind “wow, that looks like vomit,” it probably tastes like it. I should admit I’ve never tried it, but I’m not about to start now.

Lastly, and I know I’ve said this before, but don’t worry about your grades—they don’t matter. Trust me when I tell you that you’re going to remember the time you listed your friend on Craigslist much better than what you got in Psychology 101.

Take these lessons to heart—while I loved my four years here, I probably would’ve had a little easier go of it had I known these earlier. Good luck and enjoy what you’ve still got left.

If I hear the song “MMMBop” one more time I’m going to throw a plate full of sub-par food through a cafeteria window, and guess what? I’m sending you the bill.

Here’s why: what you’re doing should be illegal—it sounds like extortion to me. In the real world, if you tell someone you’re going to continue to do something until someone pays you enough money to stop, you go to jail for quite some time.

Those of you who don’t know, in an effort to raise money to combat child literacy (which is laudable), KKG is playing Hanson’s “MMMBop” on repeat in both the Atrium and Cafeteria. They will stop this violation of our Eighth Amendment protection from cruel and unusual punishment once they have raised enough money to satisfy their donation goal.

I’m all for helping kids learn how to read, I’m just for doing it legally. So let me propose this: rather than extorting the Blue Streak community, let’s raise some money together and have a little fun in the process.

We will turn the tables, rather than us be subjected to the cruelty of Hanson, you will. If you’re really committed to raising money, this should be a no-brainer.

Here’s my plan: you all go around and get pledges (i.e. a nickel for every minute you take part in my plan). I’ll secure a room and some unimaginably large speakers. Then, the Saturday before finals, I’ll put you all in there and put “MMMBop” on repeat.

The clock will then begin on your pledges, and every minute you stay in the room will determine how much money you collect. Also, don’t be ridiculous—I will absolutely NOT be in the room with you—I’m a supervisor.

We can raise more money by selling tickets to what promises to be a great show; I’ll install soundproof glass and people can watch.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “that’s a terrible idea.” You’re right, for you it is. But let me outline the ways it trumps your current plan.

We begin with legality: my idea is legal, yours is questionable. While a picture of every Kappa on campus being taken out of your next chapter meeting in handcuffs will play great on our front page, I think that’s worth avoiding.

Secondly, in my scenario, there are no restrictions on what you can have in your room, including food. In your plan, what are we supposed to do if it’s fish day? Then, not only is the food bad, but we have to listen to Hanson. If not for the always smiling and lovely faces of Betty and Sharon, I would literally go insane.

Locking you in a room with Hanson playing on repeat is no ones ideal scenario, but you can admit there are obvious up-sides to my plan.

If my mere suggestion isn’t enough, I’m willing to bet the fact that I just told everyone that what you’re doing might be illegal will be.

So please, for the love of God, turn off the music.

Honors students tend to epitomize those students who are absolutely obsessed with their grades. For me, watching their faces as a professor hands back papers or tests is arguably better than Christmas morning.

Newsflash: grades are not the end of the world. That’s not to say that you should be riding a 2.0 GPA, but is the difference in work that it takes to get a 3.7 instead of a 3.3 really worth it? I don’t think so.

I think you all know the student I’m talking about: the one who will follow the professor down the hall after receiving a paper back and is so worked up that he got an 89 and not a 91 that he is speaking almost incoherently. It’s those two points that are really going to change his life.

I had a philosophy class here several years back where we randomly had “participation days” and if we were there and participated we got credit — each “participation day” counted for one percent of our overall grade.

One day we (probably mostly me) were a little chatty, and the professor decided that no one would receive the one percent that particular day. Boom, roasted; we all were now starting with a 99 percent.

I joke, some didn’t. There was a girl who I think almost had a heart attack. She was beside herself, and it was excellent. I personally would have paid to see the show that followed, but lo and behold, it was free. She cried and complained and I think she actually earned that one percent back for herself — well done, it was totally worth it.

When I’ve told this story before there are people who have said my reaction was “mean” or “insensitive,” but I don’t think so. Writing a solid paper is important; losing one percent is not.

I took an honors class last year where, after receiving back the first paper, the professor later told me a student told her “Well, I know I did C work, but I figured you’d give me an A.” Uh, wrong.

There is so much more to learn in college than what is taught in the classroom, I think it’s high time some people started to respect that.

If you leave here having never skipped a class (and I know someone who did), then I say to you: wasted opportunity.

You think you’re going to be able to pull that once you’re in the real world? Wrong. If you think there will ever be a day where you can simply say “screw this test tomorrow, it’s karaoke night” once you’re out of here, you’re crazy. And wrong.

In my view, the most mature people in college are the ones who have respect for their particular situation and are willing to have a little more fun in exchange for the B+ instead of the A-. You can either waste your time here, or enjoy it.

So next time you’re faced with this decision, I say: grow up and live a little.

John Carroll, we have enough votes to sway this election, and I think it is our responsibility to future classes that the “Consolo administration” that he loved to reference never materializes.

Consolo began the debate with a long, superfluous tribute to University Heights’ current mayor. It’s not exactly a secret that Mayor Rothschild is no friend to JCU. Strike one.

This “business as usual” language sharply contrasted him coming dangerously close to calling himself a maverick in his closing remarks. As I recall, there was a vice presidential candidate who also attempted to embody that title recently. Strike two.

Answering a question about relations between the City and the University, Consolo said he thought we needed to “increase dialogue” between the two; I suppose that is true. Dialogue between the City and University cannot get any lower than the University sending the City it’s Master Plan over a year ago and still has not heard a response.

That is most troubling because not only is Consolo the chair of the University Affairs Committee of the University Heights City Council, he is the creator. Don’t worry though, these things take time, he really has our best interests at heart. Strike three—you’re out.

Probably the most painful part of the debate was watching Consolo take shot-after-shot at Susan Infeld, another candidate for mayor. He really should have picked up on the fact that not only was she handling his arguably rude delivery of criticism gracefully, she was turning the tables on who looked unqualified to be mayor.

I have long believed that the University needs to take a firmer stance against a city that, despite the fact that they’d barely survive without our taxes, has decided to treat the University like garbage. It seems to me the best way to do that is to start with helping to elect a mayor who is truly interested in working with JCU.

University Heights tells us when we can use our football field, where we can park and, at times, has held a notion that all JCU students do is party. They ignore the emphasis on service that JCU holds and the deep roots that Campus Ministry has in this campus.

I adhere to the idea that residents of University Heights moved into this city fully aware of the fact that there is a college in it. I’m not saying that the University should run the city, I’m aware other people live here too, but we should at least be on equal footing.

So on Nov. 3, the 700 of us that are registered to vote in this city need to go to the ballot boxes and begin the process of strengthening JCU’s stance in the city—in my opinion, the best way to do that is not a vote for Consolo.

It seems to me that the Nobel Committee decided not to award Obama’s accomplishments towards peace (which even I will admit are hard to find), but rather decided to use the Nobel Peace Prize as a mechanism to yet again have an international rebuke of the George W. Bush administration’s policies towards international diplomacy.

I think that is petty and petulant; a childish “we told you so” in a world that is far too complicated for such waywardness.

President Obama has done nothing to deserve this award—the irony is rich in the Committee selecting Obama to receive the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize around the same time that he is announcing he will escalate a war in Afghanistan.

The Committee acknowledged Obama’s spoken commitment to solving the Israeli conflict as a reason for the award, but if they are serious about that they would have had to hand out the Prize to every sitting president since Israel was created.

It’s not hard to stand up and say that a stable Israel is important to the United States’ Middle East interests; it is, however, difficult and probably deserving of that award to actually accomplish an agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Not only has Obama not come close to facilitating that agreement, he was rebuked by Israel for suggesting that he would want to broker this compromise. Shortly after his announcement, Israel came out and said that it would not happen in the near future.

In a sense this award is bad for Obama. It solidifies that even the international community believes that he is all bark and no bite—and they’re okay with that.

Even if they are, I’m not. By and large I’ve been rather happy with the President; I think he’s navigating the terrible situation that this country is in rather well, but that doesn’t mean he deserves a Nobel.

He doesn’t even think he deserved it. Him winning this prize wasn’t on his or his staff’s radar. The White House Situation Room, who monitors activity around the world, first picked up the news—they sent an e-mail to White House staffers to inform them, the subject line of which simply read “item of interest,” according to The New York Times.

The White House had no official comment for several hours after finding this out, pointing quite clearly to the fact that they were so surprised they didn’t really know what to do.

What is clear in all this, though, is the Committee who selects the Nobel Peace Laureates acted inappropriately and should be ashamed of their international conduct. A Nobel Prize should celebrate work, not condemn others. America’s image in the world was quite apparently damaged under W’s eight years, but the Nobel Committee equally damaged their reputation with their selection for the 2009 Peace Prize to go to the freshman war-time president.

In 2005, the University decided to extend Weis’ contract through 2015. Estimates from ESPN.com predict his end of that contract to come out between $30 and $40 million—and ESPN guesses he’s on the higher end of that scale. That makes him one of the highest paid coaches in college football. And for what?

I’ll concede that Weis is a terrific play-caller, and has been since his NFL play-calling days, but that’s about all he’s working with.

He has no control over his team. For those of you out there who live and die each Saturday afternoon by the Fighting Irish, you’re also looking forward to not sweating out the last few minutes of a nail biter with the Irish’s bye on Saturday. But USC is coming up—along with Pitt, Stanford and Boston College. These are not pushover teams.

The way I see it, these past four games, which have all either been decided in the last minute of regulation or over time, could and should have been different. The Irish are a better team than they’ve been playing—they just don’t have a coach.

If Weis were serious about winning games, he would’ve gotten their penalties under control after the Michigan loss, but he hasn’t. The Irish continue to take late hit personal fouls and off sides calls—at home. That is absurd.

Think about how many 10- and 15-yard losses the Irish have taken. They are killing themselves. They are a better team than Michigan, and should’ve buried Purdue, Washington and Michigan State (although I was happy to see ‘little brother’ beat the Wolverines for the second year in a row).

All the talking heads are saying that Weis is on the hot seat, but for me, his chances are up. He took Ty Willingham’s players and had a few great seasons, then came in his class.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Jimmy Clausen is a terrific quarterback and Armando Allen can catch just about anything, but that doesn’t mean much when your line is taking penalty after penalty.

A football coach worth keeping around would have spent the Monday after every eight plus penalty game running his team until they understood, without equivocation, that if they wanted to stay on the field, their total number of penalties needs to come down.

Either Weis isn’t doing this, or the team doesn’t care what he thinks, and neither is a good thing.

Weis should go back to play calling in the NFL, his attempt at head coaching college football just isn’t working out. Notre Dame has the potential to be a ranked team—they just need a leader with them to guide them through the final steps. Until they are willing to take this final step and get a coach who the players know is for real, and who can keep them from shooting themselves in the foot week after week, they will continue to simply be the most overrated team in college football.

That being said, the President is not having much success regulating the financial industry, and as is custom, the industry is taking advantage.  

Looking back about 15 months, as Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman recently pointed out, macro-economists were thrilled with themselves and the job they were doing. They truly believed that there were financial markets in place that accurately regulated and priced assets.

Then the capital markets froze, Lehman Brothers crashed, and all hell broke loose. The Dow crashed and the biggest banks in the world realized, virtually overnight, that they needed billions of dollars from the federal government or they would go belly-up; an action that in all likelihood would have sent the world economy into a free-falling, sustained depression.

Largely this happened because bank executives are hugely rewarded for short-term profits, yet there are few repercussions for the down-the-road effects of action taken to earn those short-term profits, so the executives take massive risks to earn massive profits. Oh yeah, they did that with your (or your parents’) invested money.

A year later the Troubled Asset Relief Program money is being paid back and President Obama is being credited with the stimulus bill bringing our economy back from the brink, but the banks are going back to business as usual, with one addition: they are fighting financial regulation tooth and nail.

Markets were hardly regulated before the Great Depression. The first recession in America was in 1797, just ten short years after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and continued regularly until the Depression.

Roosevelt took action and regulated markets, which held the financial/insurance industry to less than four percent of GDP even in the bull-market years of the 1960s; but once Reagan deregulated markets and the insurance/financial sectors of the economy shot up to eight percent of GDP. Then Clinton decided it was a good idea not to subject financial derivatives to the scrutiny of the SEC. This crash was inevitable, because greed is hard to overcome. When a company can return investment profits of 40 percent annually without lifting a finger, there is little incentive to hold back.

So the markets crashed, and as the president has said, “we were on the brink of disaster.” And it doesn’t seem like the financial industry learned anything from this. They are back to taking investment risks, this time largely with money printed by the fed, which will greatly expedite the rate at which it will become inflationary. They are also back to bundling and trading, just life insurance policies this time instead of mortgage-backed securities.

All of this is leading to an increased urgency that the president pass financial regulation. The industry needs to know that both this administration and the American people are serious about making sure nothing like this will ever happen again.

It’s not entirely your fault, I do appreciate that you’re trapped in a failed system, but it’s time to pick up the slack.

The roads, lights and traffic patterns around here make absolutely no sense. It’s like the city planners were a little hung over, so they gave their 6-year-old child a crayon and a piece of paper and said “tell me where I should put roads, and that will be where I put them.”

Either that or intersections were drawn with the intention of making them the highest possible accident risk intersections in America.

The Cleveland drivers default move is to slam on the brake. No matter what happens, you all brake; every single one of you. This action is conducive to accidents.

People are talking a lot about preventative healthcare in the current debate, and I think some Ohio congresspeople should seriously consider earmarking money to beef up drivers-ed programs in Cleveland.

Stoplights are more like recommendations to you people, and stop signs are apparently optional if they have the white outlining.

For a Cleveland driver, if there’s a car in a lane that you would rather be in then they should get the hell out of your way—I mean what are they thinking just driving there?

Realizing this makes me feel bad. I used to make fun of CN Editor in Chief Rachel Szuch because she has a 1:1 ratio of minutes lived to accidents gotten in, and it really isn’t her fault that much.

I read a study on MSNBC.com over the summer that said Cleveland had the most courteous drivers in America, and I’m not sure what the guys who did that survey were smoking, but it was intense.

I mean I don’t get the middle finger the way I do in Chicago or have in New York. I’ve never been to L.A., but I hear driving there is a beast in its own league, and so in that sense, I suppose you are all very nice, but that doesn’t make you good.

Sometimes I wonder if there’s a big contest I’m not aware of to see who, in fact, can be the worst driver on the road. One guy I saw last Sunday was reading a book while driving—I’ve seen that other places too, but at least when that happens in Chicago the driver is periodically looking up and checking on the road. Not so much with my dude yesterday—that must have been the most interesting chapter of any book ever.

My main point here is I only have until December left in this city, and I would like to see my way through to that point without sustaining any serious injuries. So I’m asking all of you to help me. Please don’t get in an accident with me. They haven’t passed healthcare reform, yet, and I’m not sure I can afford the damage you people are capable of.

Now there are nay-sayers out there who will claim that all I’m doing is having fun at other peoples’ expense and it’s an immature and petty thing to do, but I say to all of you that you are only looking at the surface of my intentions.

I’m a firm believer that only about 30 percent of the total amount that you learn in college is in the classroom. There are so many things that you learn about life, yourself and the way that other people act that are equally as important as what you learn in the classroom. And, to be frank, there are some people who need more learning in that department than others. 

Looking back over my four years at Carroll, the school should’ve paid me to come here. I have the equivalent of a Ph.D. in helping those that are lacking in “street smarts” double-time their education.

Everyone has a few friends who could use some life lessons (sometimes the hard way) and I think I can help you teach them. After all, isn’t it better that you teach them and everyone gets to share a laugh rather than them doing something truly stupid where they wind up in jail?

The first person who could use a lesson is the overly gullible friend. There was a friend of mine who we convinced that he stabbed someone. 

I’m dead serious. 

The best part of this was it wasn’t planned out. He was playing with a knife, and we started joking around, until we realized that he was seriously buying what we were selling. So we kept selling until the sale was complete. I truly believe that my buddy will never take anything that absurd at face value again, which I think is a good thing. You’re welcome.

The second lesson is never let down your guard on April Fools’ Day. This I think was one of the most amusing days of my entire life (even though we got the idea from a Plain Dealer article). We put an ad on Craig’s List that said “My girlfriend will dump me if I don’t get rid of my Nintendo Wii, so I’m giving it away for free to the first person to call this number,” and then put his phone number. Thirty calls in eight minutes. Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll ever grow out of April Fools’ Day.

One person who can always use a good dose of reality is a friend who possibly has gotten too big for their britches. While I had very little to do with this particular prank, it was hilarious and worthy of column inches. Pick one embarrassing event out of that person’s life, and write a cover song to a popular song about them. Then record it and play that song at a party. Trust me, it’s worth the effort.

Those are a few prime examples of how I believe practical jokes make the world better both by acting as a valuable learning exercise and making people laugh. I hope you can try one of these, or think of something better. And if you do, be sure to drop me an e-mail and let me know about it.

The thing that bothers me the most, and may actually shape the way that I obtain my news for the rest of my life, is cable news.

From what I’ve seen this summer I have come to hold such contempt for every commentator I’ve ever heard—they aren’t playing a serious role in this very serious debate, and I think it’s tragic.

While I admit I favor reform, and my ideological views fall more with MSNBC than with FOX, I cannot watch any of it anymore—except Glenn Beck, he’s hilariously insane.

The problem is that these “pundits” are not doing their jobs: a pundit is supposed to provide insight. We turn to these people on cable news because of their experience and knowledge, which should be how they get their particular gig, but they are behaving more like actors than analyzers. 

For example, this particular column was written on Monday night as we go to print on Tuesday night, but I can already tell you what the commentators will say after President Obama’s address to the joint session of Congress on Wednesday night.

Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow will say he is bringing about the aggressive change that he promised and the American people mandated and Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity will say that he has a hopelessly liberal agenda which will, in the end, bring ruin to this country. Add hyperbole as you will to both of those statements.

Now I’m 22-years-old, and have very limited political experience, and yet I can rattle off the talking points for both sides—and in case any show is interested in signing a new commentator, I think I can do just as well for less than half the money the cable companies are currently paying their pundits.

The Pew Research Center for the People and Press have suggested that in our demographic, adults aging from 18-25, 13 percent of us watch “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” for news, while 10 percent watch “The Big Three” news sources—ABC, CBS or NBC—and after seeing what I’ve seen this summer, it’s not hard to imagine why. 

Stewart, while at times ridiculous, always calls it like he sees it, no matter what party the politician is from, and understands that there is a real debate that should happen. 

It’s problematic that while Congress and the President attempt to reform 18 percent of the United States’ economy the right questions and valued analysis isn’t being put forth, but instead stories about people screaming in town hall meetings or standing outside with guns, are what’s making headlines.

Pundits have a great responsibility to a functional democracy. If no meaningful reform occurs, whatever that may mean, I’m looking to them more than anyone else as the people who truly failed this country.

The people in charge of Relay, and the Relay participants, do a fantastic job; it’s a great event that raises a great deal of money for cancer research.  I say we should Relay wherever we want for a night.

What’s the worst thing that could happen? I highly doubt the University gets cited for a noise violation during Relay.  If we do, send the ticket to me – I won’t pay it. I hope they cuff me – a picture of me in the silver bracelets will play really well for the city in The Plain Dealer.

It has always seemed a little ridiculous to me that the city tries to push around the University the way they do. I understand that residents of the city want a peaceful neighborhood where they aren’t woken up by loud students coming home from a party, however, I don’t have a terrible amount of sympathy for them.

Here’s some insight, University Heights: You moved next to a college. You’re surprised that college students party or that its football team wants to have games under the lights? If that’s the case, I’m guessing you either went to Grove City College or you were the RA who treated your job like you’re in the military. Everyone really likes that RA.

In an effort to keep tensions low, the University tries to be a good neighbor and concedes a great deal of authority to the city, but we shouldn’t for Relay. If neighbors of the University can’t sleep one night out of the year because most of the students have decided to take time out of their incredibly busy schedules to raise money for cancer research, I say “good.” Come join Relay, maybe we can make more money.

Due to a law passed last year, I paid $4 to the state of Ohio and $18 to the city of University Heights in income tax. That seems a little backwards to me and is simply another example, in a long list of examples, showing that University Heights is “out to get” John Carroll.

The city refuses to admit the positives that the University brings to this community. We do a significant amount of community service both in the Cleveland and world communities; we pay way too much in income tax; and we pay a significant amount of sales tax on all the beer we buy. I don’t think the city would be able to go on without the financial support we bring.

Next year, let’s just say, “screw it – arrest me” to the city. We can be as good, or as bad, as the city wants us to be, but I don’t think we should budge one inch on where we hold our Relay For Life. It is far too good of a cause, and we already do far too much to make this city happy.

Needless to say, when I was working on a paper a few days ago in Microsoft Word and it recommended that I change “you’re” to “you is,” I came about as close as I ever have to throwing my computer out the window.

Facebook is a perfect example of how content some people are with presenting their thoughts so poorly. I signed on the other day and saw a status from someone I knew in high school that seriously read: “yesterday was the worst day of my life and it has continued into today cuz i hafta wrtie a important paper in a matter of hours from scratch… o yea almost forgot [explative] rome.”

Not only do I not have a clue what that means, I count upwards of 10 errors in that run-on. I’m guessing once you clean it up, there are errors that we can’t see yet.

It doesn’t make sense to me when people think that is an okay way to present their thoughts or feelings. After reading that particular passage, I found myself hoping his day and all of his days after that got progressively worse until he figured out how to articulate himself in a way that would suggest he passed third grade.

The abbreviations that people use seem odd to me, as well. Is it really too much work to type out “be right back?” I don’t think so.

The constant use of “omg” is another problem. First of all, how does God feel about being referred to as simply “g”? I bet He doesn’t like it. Also, does using “g” instead of the actual word mean you haven’t taken the lord’s name in vain? I’m not sure, but anyone who says “omg,” stay away from me on the quad; if the big guy’s coming for you, I want no part of that.

Fone is not the same as phone; it’s not even a word and makes you sound phony. Their does not equal there, which does not equal they’re, the same way that to, too and two are not interchangeable. “Sry” is not substantially shorter than sorry, and might be taken as less sincere. If you really made a fool of yourself last weekend, you may be better off just using the full word when trying to explain to your significant other why you weren’t wearing pants.

I do not accept when you use except incorrectly, and there is a difference between who and whom. You didn’t play good; you played well, and a comma is not the same thing as a semi-colon – the extra dot tells you so.

There is truly nothing more frustrating than when you see these problems over and over; at some point, you’re in college – act like it.

Facebook is a great tool to stay in touch with long-lost friends who you otherwise probably would never have talked to after you graduated high school, not an opportunity for you to prove to old friends (and potential employers) that u r not write good.

From English to Accounting, every major has the people who make you truly resent a class you would ordinarily enjoy – the over-participator.

My limited understanding of pedagogy tells me that any form of upper-level course educates by challenging beliefs. One person thinks one thing, another person thinks another thing, and both of those opinions need an opportunity to be brought to fruition.

This doesn’t work so well with the over-participator.

You know what kind of person I’m talking about; the person who talks way too much, even by my standards. The student in class who thinks the 19 other people in the room will greatly benefit from hearing what they think about every single comment and issue.

This person usually comes to class prepared in an unconventional way. They haven’t done the assigned reading, per se, but they have been watching CNBC or listening to NPR.

That is how they will introduce their first comment of the class: “Well last night, while I was watching CNN…” Once that first comment is out there, it’s free reign on the rest of the class period.

The worst part about this person is the way they speak in absolutes and will openly mock any other opinion that is raised. They will then begin to build popular support around what they think.

You’ll say something, then hear a comment come from the corner.  The over-participator has rebutted whatever ignorant and unsupported thing you have said and has moved on to nudging the people around them, usually following that with a “check out this guy.”

From that point on the over-participator will continue to rebut anything else that is said by others – even, at times, the professor. When they are done gracing the class with their brilliant insight and ground-breaking thoughts the class will be over and it is time to leave.

News flash, over-participator: you don’t have a Ph.D.; you don’t have a master’s degree; nor do you have a bachelor’s degree – you are a student, just like everyone else.

I say it’s time to take a stand against the over-participator. Once the consensus of the class is that a certain person has become an over-participator, start interrupting them. Then fight fire with fire; build your own support against that person. It’s not inappropriate to call them out in front of the whole class, nor is it inappropriate to directly ask them a question that they would have no way of knowing the answer.

Kindly reminding an over-participator that they are not the supreme being of knowledge, is not always such a bad thing. A certain lesson in humility can come from these actions.

The true crime is when others don’t get a chance to speak. People who choose to participate in class usually do so at a time when they feel that they have a particularly well thought-through insight to offer the class, and suppressing that is the real crime.

Also it sets the bar much higher to get an A in participation if you allow the over-participator to dominate the class discussion–something no one wants to deal with.