Extracurricular

How many of your architecture classmates were (or are) athletes, or participated in team activities? Were sports and other activities forbidden to architecture majors at your college?

In talking with some recent graduates, I’m getting the impression that the banning of other activities has become the norm at their schools, even where such banning is counter to school policy.

Here’s a heads up: if your professors or critics are telling you that unlike students of other professions, you are to have no time for extracurricular activities, then they are attempting to establish a life-long pattern for you, and if you let them they will.

In my own college days, centuries ago it seems, students were discouraged from the fraternity/sorority system if in architecture. I thought, and still think, that this had more to do with a dislike of that system (and a lack of need for it with studio camaraderie) than actual workloads, but it was true that many of those with a rented hangout tended to learn and contribute less in the studio itself.

It wasn't for me, but some made it work extremely well, developing friendships in both places and truly getting benefits from both.

The required studio time of an architecture degree makes sports difficult. But that’s little different than the required studio time of an architecture job. And it is not so different than the required lab time of some other degrees.

An adjunct (or the college itself) enforcing their own arbitrary requirement on a student’s entire college career is not only inappropriate, it is stifling and it sends the wrong message. As a student, if you take on too much it is your responsibility to determine what to cut in order to pass, not your professor’s. It's true for later in life as well.

One of my favorite professors was an SEC quarterback. Our football star when I was in college had a double engineering major and a 4.0. I couldn't have handled the extra work of it, but some can and do. It should not be the purview of a college or its associate professors to forbid it.

Aim low in the diversity of your life and you will not have a diverse life. Professors requiring you to do so may be teaching you how to slave for others, but are setting you up to be a boring professional.

Whether a culture of all-nighters or of professional isolation, the patterns set in college often persist for the rest of our lives.