By Janine Kritschgau, '18, Features Editor
This morning, Skidmore announced its most star-studded lecture series to date. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Ralph Lauren will each partake in “You’re Probably Wasting Your Time,” a handful of lectures focusing on the benefits of dropping out of college.
The series has been organized by the Speaker’s Bureau. “We are responding to a general trend of fatigue and lack of motivation among students,” the Speaker’s Bureau commented in its release statement.
Despite some initial hesitation, faculty members have quickly endorsed the series. “To be honest, everything I say in my class is read directly from a text book. Luckily students never crack them open so they don’t notice. Essentially, I could do this job without a degree, and students could buy these books and read them on their own,” a mathematics professor who would like to remain anonymous stated.
This lecture series raises serious questions regarding our society's conditioning of the younger generation. The steady increase in fees and tuition of colleges and universities around the world causes a great deal of anxiety. Regardless of these worries, students are told going to college is the only way to improve their job prospects. For many, not going to college feels unthinkable. Life without college seems scary—a lifetime of living in one’s parent’s basement, making cash by doing chores around the house.
Drawing upon their own experiences as college dropouts, Gates, Zuckerberg, and Lauren will speak about what it’s really like to make the move into this unknown. When students reached out to them to organize the event, each of the speakers said “It’s pretty freaking awesome,” in unison.
Kanye West will open each event with performances of songs from his debut album, College Dropout.