The arguing, she is afoot

As recently as last week, a resident told me that residencies are very interested in recruiting med school graduates who have been on teams or worked in an organization. The purpose being that medicine is very much a team oriented atmosphere and they would rather not spend the time breaking someone of the habit of thinking there's "an I in team." But sometimes teams go astray too, particularly when the teammates want it done their way and don't want to listen to other people.

Enter: Phi Chi politics. It seems there are people around here who have been used to getting their way for a very long time. That, coupled with a very emotional topic (namely bicycle storage - it gets emotional when you consider the lack of space around here, crime rates in Galveston, and what the caustic sea air does to your bike metal), leads to a lot of tension.

Last week we tried to address this issue, namely because someone was really mad that her bike was stolen from *inside* the house and as a result, *everyone and their mother had to chime in on their feelings on the matter*. Granted, the person who had her bike stolen had a legitimate concern - what can we do to improve security around Phi Chi? But, naturally, that issue was turned around by people who a) don't live at Phi Chi or B) don't own a bike. Soon the issue became "don't store the bikes in the house." As for security, the most vocal people just decided to point fingers and blame others for not closing the doors. Way to be mature.

There became two camps: the one side wanted all of the bikes moved out of the house and those of us who had bikes who felt like we were being unfairly punished and our concerns dismissed. The issue of security was not addressed (beyond people pointing fingers and the upperclassmen saying that it MUST be the first years who are leaving the doors open).

Since this issue was getting so emotional for so many people, it was tabled at our last house meeting. Most of us thought the issue was tabled until a) a solution could be reached (ie, we could have a storage shed with enough space for the bikes AND a lock), b) we could look at it from a fresh POV and not be so emotional over it.

So imagine our surprise on receiving an email earlier this day from the Phi Chi president who said, in essence, that our bikes had to be moved by 6:30pm tonight or they would be thrown into the courtyard. So much for voting. When someone pointed out that the timing was quite bad (most of us have a final tomorrow), the shed option had not materialized (it's full and has no lock), *where was the vote* on the matter (we have bylaws for these things, right??), - those concerns were dismissed as "whining."

And oh yes, what would a discourse be without the old (when I was your age favorite) "When I had a bike, I kept it in my room!" Well, that person moved out to have more room (which I don't have enough of), and I doubt he would have hauled my 80 pound bike up the stairs every day.

I am willing to admit that having bikes in the main house is not aesthetic (but neither is most of Phi Chi - we live here cuz it's cheap and close to campus, not because we think it's pretty). However, when not so simple issues are decided by ONE person who is not directly affected by them, and any discourse on the matter is dismissed as whining, I get very disillussioned with the whole "team spirit" aspect of Phi Chi. If the upperclassmen want to get their way, they need to learn the fine art of negotiating: to be quite cynical, they should have either given us an offer we could not refuse (ie, a secure place for our bikes), or made us think this whole thing was our idea. Instead they really engendered a lot of anger and tension.

No wonder Will Rogers never spent much time around a medical school.