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Dear Editor,
Spring semester after spring semester, the Campus Activities Board hosts its signature give-a-way event, where thousands upon thousands of dollars are shelled out in a single night of luck and prizes. We call this free lunch by a new name each year, but whether it’s Super Bingo, Blingo Bingo, or Get Free Stuff Bingo, let’s call it Greedy Bingo.
This is arguably my favorite event all year, and much of the student body seems to hold similar feelings about Greedy Bingo, as year after year, the stands are packed and everyone gets into Bingo mode. Who doesn’t like an event where if you understand five letters and about eighty numbers, as well the difference between red and white, you have the potential to win flat screen televisions, iPods, and Celtic tickets?
Sure our money paid for the prizes, as it’s all funded by that wonderful student activity fee, but you don’t think about that while at Bingo. You think about how many squares you are away from screaming Bingo, being shocked that you somehow won, and walking (or apparently running) to the caller’s table to claim your prize or face off against the other lucky Bingo yellers. The point is that everyone loves Greedy Bingo.
That’s the problem.
Look, I know this is a business school, and I know why we’re all here. It could be summed up really into one word: money. You can sing and dance and try to say you chose Bentley for the campus, or the area, or the small classes, or even simply because of your Ambassador being cute or something, but at the end of the day, you chose to attend an elite business school. Business would be the optimal word there. Why did you choose to go to a business school? Simple: you want to get a job after college and make money. That’s what businesses (are supposed to) do.
There’s nothing wrong with that; obviously I chose this school as well, and don’t regret it for an instant. But my point is that we all hear those statistics about 99% of Bentley students finding jobs or significant commitments within six months of graduating, and how affluent accountants and Wall Street wiz-kids are, and it makes us salivate. The recession doesn’t change any of these facts, because it didn’t hit the fan until after we all chose Bentley.
We’re all out for the big pay day, and nothing says it more than Greedy Bingo. At Bentley, most sporting events feature empty stands, performances by students organizations rarely feature a full or even half house, but when we here about a friggin’ Bingo game, we come running.
And we don’t play like the civilized people we are in interviews and presentations. Oh no; we’re vicious. We boo and shout in anger at the winners that stole our win; we cry out in fury as the number caller “refuses” to call the one number we’ve needed for the last five games. Heaven forbid someone mistakenly call out Bingo and not have it, as they’re likely to lose a couple friends that evening
We get so enthralled in a board game for valuable prizes, but we don’t care at all about our teams until they hit playoffs or championships. We don’t care to support the tireless work of countless organizations trying to entertain or stimulate us. In fact, can you remember the last event you went to that didn’t have a major incentive for you to attend: whether it be food, a cash bar, raffles, prizes, or some other way of compensating you for your time?
At Bentley, we truly are business thinkers. There must be an incentive to care about the vandalism on campus (which is increased punishments), an incentive to attend an event (even if it’s to fight cancer or poverty), and an incentive to give a damn about anything. Even Service Learning has to offer paid positions, class credit, or a special diploma certification to corral us into helping our community. City Year has to offer $20,000 scholarships and the amount of free stuff that organizations have to give out at events just to get attention is almost sickening when you add up the money spent of all those trinkets.
What does it say to you that they always wait until at least half of the sporting contest is over before handing out the t-shirts or sweatshirts that were promised you in return for your attendance? How often do you hear, “Let’s go to the game, there’s free [insert item plastered with “Bentley”]!”?
Some of you reading this are gripping the paper, ready to scream that I’m an idiot for saying this, because capitalism itself is a system of incentives. Of course it is, and of course it’s human nature to want incentives, but when you talk to your friends at other schools or to administrators who attended or worked at other schools before coming here, you’ll find something out: at other schools, people don’t need to hear or read the words “pizza,” “raffle,” “prize,” or see $$$ in order to get interested in something.
Greed is good, as Gordon Gekko would say; it drives our economy, building innovation after innovation, and sparks healthy competition that provides for economic growth. But to me, Greedy Bingo reveals the worst in our nature as business students and perhaps as people in general. From throwing cards into the crowd without remorse (hitting bystanders in the face, head, eye…..and that’s just the people I heard complaining on the way out), to hating when others win and making it abundantly clear to everyone within hearing distance that we’re upset, to acting as if we’re owed a prize or as if the game was rigged because we didn’t win a game of absolute chance, we’re out for ourselves at Bingo and we’re not quiet about it.
Never mind that we might hurt someone by flinging the cards blindly into the crowd. Never mind the fact that someone would have to pick up those damn cards after we tossed them onto the polished wooden court. Never mind that CAB handed out over $5,000 worth of prizes (I’m just estimating, it was $10,000 last year) and got nothing but a mess to clean up as a thank you.
From arrogance to apathy towards the plight of others to greed, our worst colors were flying high at the Dana Center on Friday night, just like every year. We cared about ourselves and our own winnings; we cared about having our laughs and good time, especially at the expense of others.
That makes us human maybe, but I’d rather think that we’re better than that when push comes to shove; that we care about our neighbor, even if we don’t know him or her well. I’d rather think that we’re at Bingo for a good time, and that we’re busy when all the other campus events are happening.
But we’re not, and somehow that’s okay with us, myself included. I love Greedy Bingo just like everyone else does, despite showing off how greedy we really are. I skip events all the time, and I wish that I received a tenth of the emails that I get advertising them.
When it comes to Bingo though, should I think about all this before I go to next year’s Bingo Extravaganza, which may have an even cornier name? Should I reconsider going and just sit in my room or go off campus, avoiding the game all together? Would it be better to delude myself that I’m not as greedy as everyone else and that Greedy Bingo doesn’t matter to me? Probably…until the thought that must hit every Bentley student’s mind before doing anything comes across my mind…
But what’s in it for me?
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