Free Your Mind Friday

It is Friday the Thirteenth. Did you see a black cat walk past you? Did you see the same thing a second time? Déjà vu. Maybe it is a sign that something has changed in the Matrix.

Are we living in a simulation? That’s the question I’m thinking of posing for the first meeting of a discussion group in the residence halls next semester. Once again, I will be part of the college Living Learning Community program aimed at first-year new students. (Yes, my semester hasn’t quite ended yet and I’m already excited for the next one! Last month I had a wild idea for my class final project – Imagining New Elements.) I signed up to be in the same theme as last semester, Faith and Reason. The first movie in the Matrix trilogy provides all manner of interesting fodder for discussion related to the theme. It also has great special effects (for 1999) and lots of action (my kind of movie).

I’m thinking of calling this activity “Free your mind Friday”. To check if this might work, I consulted a student who will be an RA (resident assistant) in the residence hall that will house the Faith and Reason community. She was enthusiastic (I think) and thought that Friday afternoons would work well. (The fact that she is a chemistry major and will be in my Quantum class next semester might have helped!) Part of my impetus is to have something for students who aren’t interested in off-campus partying and might want to participate in a community co-curricular activity that has an intellectual component on a Friday afternoon. Apparently Thursday evening doesn’t work as well because the non-partiers are usually studying for Friday exams or working on papers. This is why it helps to have a student consultant as a partner-in-crime. She also suggested that she could organize a movie night ahead of the discussion event – apparently because a number of students may not actually have watched the Matrix. I guess 1999 was a long time ago – although the movie is still fresh in my memory

It's not easy to get students to come to “dorm events”. When I was in college and worked as a house adviser, this wasn’t a problem because we actually just had ten people living in a house so the community was in-built. However when I had an appointment as a resident faculty member, the student RAs or staff resident coordinators would sometimes have a hard time getting students to meetings or events. And that was over ten years ago. If anything there might actually be less hanging out in community spaces today (as observed by Rebekah Nathan when she went undercover). I had mixed success – I organized some movie and documentary viewings plus discussion. Participation was scant (handful of students showed up) even though good snacks were provided. Two things I organized that worked very well, were a session on careers and graduate school (lots of seniors attended, not surprising) and the surprise hit “How to Plan a Wedding on a Budget”. Having planned my own wedding on a budget that we paid for ourselves in grad school, I was at least slightly knowledgeable in this area. The resident coordinator even brought the top tier of a wedding cake for dessert – the students loved it! (The event earned rave reviews. It was a nice contrast to Bridezilla news in pop culture at the time.)

But I digress. My wild idea to lure students to Free Your Mind Friday is for the advertising of the event too be less obvious, perhaps even intriguing – like how Neo is invited to a secret meeting with Morpheus to learn the answers to his questions. I’m thinking that in the first few weeks we could put up some cryptic signs or symbols. My suggestion was to have White Rabbit stickers posted strategically. Students who Follow the White Rabbit will be led to the meeting time and place. Clearly it should not be too cryptic otherwise no one will show up. I’m also thinking of putting posters of Morpheus in his fancy shades holding out the red pill and the blue pill without quite explaining why. Maybe intrigue will serve as a hook for students. My partner-in-crime thought that this strategy could work although we would have to flush out the details. I am no master of intrigue, so I assigned her homework this summer: (1) to think of an intrigue campaign, and (2) to watch the movie – since she wasn’t familiar with the plot of the movie and the references I was making (although she remembered the blue and red pill).

I’ve decided not to plan other topics in detail, although I’d like to do one related to whether or not a Wizarding community does exist unbeknownst to us Muggles. And then perhaps the usefulness of learning Potions, a.k.a. Chemistry!