The End (Entry #5)

Finally, we reach the conclusion of the University Colloquium course at Florida Gulf Coast University. The assignment for this entry asked me to talk about the course both from an academic, and a personal perspective. Well, from the academic side of things, I fail to see what point this course has for students who do not have a major that relates to environmental activism. The entirety of the course seemed to be the debate of various issues regarding the environment and the climate of Earth. While I enjoy debating contemporary issues of almost any sort, I find it hard to debate when one side of the argument's strategy is to stomp their feet and yell about how the science is settled. This also relates to my personal perspective of the class, which is that it felt like a waste of time and money. Therefore, I feel that this class will have very little, if any, impact on my either my political science major, or management minor, nor on my personality.

Regarding what I did or didn't enjoy about the course, I did not enjoy how the course refused to show the perspective of anyone other than people who made predictions of climate doom and gloom, that it presumed that there was no such thing as a "climate skeptic". I also did not care for how the course seemed to be nothing more than showing up to class, being shown videos, having discussion about said videos, and then calling it a day. Lastly, I disliked when an issue besides the environment was discussed (the housing bubble collapse), the video shown was not anything of substance, but an HBO movie, which as far as I'm concerned, is like Steven Spielberg trying to make an action movie about a kid falling off his bike and breaking an arm. No matter how you edit it or how many cool visual effects you cram in there, it's still a kid falling off their bike and breaking their arm.

All that being said, I did enjoy some aspects of the class. It was nice to see the natural beauty of Southwest Florida at areas such as the Ding Darling preserve, and Big Cypress. It was also nice to see the various techniques on display at ECHO that were being taught to people in need all over the world. The experience of visiting the city of Fort Myers was something very different for me, since I grew up in a fairly rural, suburban setting, and the last time I was in an actual city was when my family took a trip to Rome. Lastly, I enjoyed meeting the people in the class.