I go back and forth on this, but I’m not sure which of the following inspires a more profound love/hate reaction for me:
1. National History Day, a more-than-a-day-long event that brings bazillions of high school students to campus to compete in some sort of history contest.
2. The perpetual cycle of sports camps whose participants overrun the student union during the hot months.
Both are ultimately good things, as they serve a community larger than the University (which exists to serve more than itself, after all), and as someone who spent a number of high school weeks on college campuses for various camps and conferences and whatnots, I am in principle happy about the hordes.
But sometimes they overwhelm us with their noise and their general lost-ness and their noise and their crazy lines at the union’s lame fast food court and their noise. Oh my, they can be loud.
