I was thinking about the whole first termer vs upper termer. While I certainly agree that it would've made the difference in my attitude, the issue kept nagging at me. I've figured out why now... a lot of the upper termers were the first to go and/or spearheaded arrangements to send people home, including themselves. This is similar to the direction provided by the faculty. As us first termers learned that our experienced folks were leaving at such a high frequency, we quickly ascertained that it would be in our best interest to follow suit. However, if we got news that upper termers were staying despite their losses, that would've demonstrated to us faith that the country could not only use our help but that it was safe and feasible to do so.

Even with people as capable as those of pursuing medicine, it still requires good leadership. There is a saying in business, "It is better to have an A-quality management with a B-quality product than a B-quality management with an A-quality product." We were a school with A-quality products/students but our leaders needed better execution. I understand this is extenuating circumstances so it is a bit much to expect flawless execution from students, such as our SGA, so I won't knock their efforts. However, I expected better from our faculty and, more importantly, our administration. I know many of the faculty lost homes and had hurting families so it is difficult to expect them to sacrifice so much. However, information, procedures, and efforts should be clearly communicated from administration. To me, as it seems to the rest of the student body, our administration did not initially take seriously the shock and trauma the event would cause on the student body and instead of immediately focusing on addressing the practical issues of survival, they were worried about telling us school would start in a week. This may have been a way to encourage confidence but they missed a whole bunch of steps in between that would lead to a resumption of classes. It bothered most of us that there seemed to be a gap in the obvious consideration of the damage to the school, and more importantly, to the country. The professors had travelled through the roads and through Grand Anse prior to the noon meetings and yet, they still naively believed that school could start up without the appropriate steps in between of resurrecting a country.

- Docks