The fourth season of Black Entertainment Television's (BET's) College Hill, featuring the University of the Virgin Islands, has caught the attention of a wider-than-expected local audience.
Despite having seen only two of the four episodes aired so far, the hoopla surrounding the first two shows made me feel like I hadn't missed much.
I don't plan to join the "overworked" debate as to whether or not university officials made a good decision by accepting BET's invitation to do the show.
During the late 1980s to early 1990s, I was a student attending Xavier University, a catholic school, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Although I would characterize both "Cincy" and Xavier as very conservative, I attended parties that would have been considered outrageous by some standards of the times.
Some would consider this outrageous behavior mild when compared to how some students may choose to behave today. Reaction to the College Hill phenomenon seems to vary according to the age of the person critiquing the show.
While many older viewers expressed outrage, many students did not see the behavior as that unusual to the college experience.
The popularity of reality shows confirms that BET, MTV and other networks have caught the attention of a wide viewing market; the stuff sells!
BET has given an unintended opportunity for those who object the most to College Hill to learn some things about our young adults that they may not have taken the time to learn if not for College Hill.
Have we learned that our expectations of our children may not be realistic? How much of what we say on College Hill was real or students just acting for the televisions cameras? Should it surprise us that these young adults would behave badly and risk embarrassment just for 15 minutes of fame?
How do we get the answers to the questions we now have about our young students?
Should UVI and our community accept the challenges that participating in College Hill has brought us. Do we turn these challenges into opportunities?
We may never get the answer to the question being asked about the decision made by UVI administrators to bring College Hill to UVI and to the Virgin Islands. A better question might be how do we maximize this opportunity given us by College Hill to stay connected with our young people, so that we will be in the position to help guide them. All each one of us can do is to prepare our child/children to interact with others in the world to the best of our ability, provide good morals, and pray that these young people will retain enough righteousness so that our young people will turn out to be great adults and role models.
The one argument that cannot be ignored is that College Hill has made us pay attention to our most valuable resource, our future leaders, where some are now being groomed at UVI.
Editors note:We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to source@viaccess.net.
