A Full Body Exam

For a college to be successful, it needs to attract and enroll students. A student body is made up of a group of people who come to the school with lots of different backgrounds. The students are what gives a college it's character.

The Breakfast Club cast from the website: Digital Bus Stop

If asked to describe Regis College's student body between 1988-1992, I would say that most of students were white kids from middle to upper class families. It was not a very diverse group. In many ways,  Regis was like a big high school. And not that people should be branded and placed into a category, but the college's student body seemed to resemble the stereotypical groups portrayed in the movie,"Breakfast Club." Although Regis was not known for its sports, there were "the jocks". There were also the "preppy kids" (I fitted in this category) and the smart "geeks." And of course, there were a few "antisocial weirdos" like Ally Sheedy's character.

Birkenstocks from the website: Ornage Peel.

Being in Colorado in the late 80s/early 90's, there was also a group of students that fit into the category of "potheads" (guys) who usually hung out with "the granola chicks". On a typical day, these individuals would wear birkenstock shoes, tie-die t-shirts, ripped jeans and glazed looks on their faces from getting high before class. Most of the group seem to not believe in razors. These students fit right into the Colorado counter-cultural environment.

It was interesting to observe a new freshman girl who arrived on campus looking very polished like she just graduated from a rich private school. Sometime during the semester, she would start a slow transformation in which she would swap out her preppy look for a look that may have been seen at Woodstock. She had gotten a boyfriend and was now hanging out with the pothead/granola crowd. It was a hoot when her father (who looked like a bank president that belonged to a country club) would come to pick her up at Christmas break. He looked almost disgraced by his daughter's appearance and was thinking to himself, "What I am going to tell the guys at the Country Club?"

By the time I was a senior, Kurt Cobain, along with his rock group, Nirvana, were really popular. Most the sophomores and incoming freshmen (regardless of what stereotypical category they normally fell into) were wearing grunge. This is ironic because that was the look that the "antisocial weirdos" had been wearing for years. 

Variety is the spice of life. Although there were different groups, I think most everyone got along and we didn't look down on one other. Thankfully Regis did not have fraternities or sororities, which I think brews animosity between students.  Even though Regis' student body lacked real diversity, it did provide me an opportunity to meet some great people who I am still friends with today.

Return next week as I do a "full body examination" of Sinclair's student body.