Blog Post #3

I’ve thought a lot about the college context during our discussions on conformity and compliance this week, specifically as it applies to Kenyon. Kenyon a very small and specific world, yet it is conducive to a number of location-specific norms which people conform and comply to. The most obvious example I can think of–one which seems to be present in every institutional context, be that a college or a high school or perhaps even a workplace (although I have less perspective on that one)–is the universal acceptance and adoption of a pretty wide range of abbreviations, acronyms and colloquialisms. For example, the universal phrase used to refer to the Drama 101 class (formally known as Introduction to the Theatre) is “Baby Drama.” Students and professors both use this phrase to the point that I have never heard anyone refer to the class by its actual prescribed name. I imagine a major factor in this is the fact that the majority of the Dance/Drama/Film department consists of Kenyon alums, who would inherently view the class as Baby Drama, but all of the factors predicting conformity check out here even with the eschewal of that fact. The number of people who use the phrase is notable, its use is unanimous and cohesive in the community, professors (figures of expertise/status/authority) use it, and as students enrolled in the class currently or previously all members of the theater community have a prior commitment to the concept of the class itself. I think the notion of figures of expertise/status/authority is perhaps the most universally applicable of these factors to a college environment because of the notable dynamic between upperclassmen and underclassmen–the upperclassmen define the social “rules” of the college for the underclassmen. When a senior, junior or sophomore refers to the two halves of the dining hall as “old side” and “new side,” a first-year accepts that referral as fact. I wonder what would happen if I made up abbreviations for things and started saying them to underclassmen. I feel like it would stick. Maybe I should start doing that…