The cheerleader, the frat boy, “that girl,” the theatre major. These stereotypes are on campus and in our classes and they make up a percentage of the enrolled students at Tech. They are the ones writing parking tickets, swimming in the Lady of the Mist and taking aerobic running.

Historically, the cheerleader label has been one of prominently positive connotations. I don’t recall the teen movie where the cheerleading squad was held together by the sole fact that everyone else in school was more blessed socially.

This holds true for Tech. Cheerleaders belong to the minority of girls who dodged the freshman fifteen and kept their abs intact. Despite the respect they deserve for that alone, the cheerleader must endure others’ assumptions that they live their lives as if they were blondes, regardless of natural hair color.

One of the many fans of the cheerleader would be the frat boy. Ah, the fraternity boys of Tech. Polo shirt, khaki shorts, frat straps and deck shoes — a timeless uniform, promising to enhance a guy’s chances on any given day. These guys are the college experience.

Uninformed bystanders may see these students as careless, but really, they are just having a good time before they have to grow up. They just have figured out that it is okay to act 18 when you are 18.

With fraternities, a good time is not complete without an appearance of “that girl.”

“That girl” is someone who seems to always be waking up the next morning, implying there was a last night. “Last night” is a more probable topic of conversation, rather than “right now.”  A more lengthy definition can be found in the multiple Facebook.com groups in which over 140 self-proclaimed “that girls” are a member of.

Don’t feel too sorry for “that girl.” She is having a better time than you and has more friends. She meets an average of 20 people a night and will remember about four. It’s cool —with that statistic, she will know Rabb’s regulars by the end of fall quarter.

The theatre major may not be as well known at Rabb’s as “that girl.” They are hardly without a social circle; in fact, there is a realm of students who do not need to take a class in order to genuinely appreciate theatre.

Their time is spent in character and in the basement of Howard Auditorium. Theatre majors don’t just wear the pants, they make them, too. Actors may be unappreciated at Tech, but they will be the celebrities we will read about in People one day.

These are just four of the many types of students sitting next to you in class. Despite the potential miscommunication that may exist between the various stereotypes, they all come together to make a better, more diverse atmosphere.

Besides, each typecast has its own fan club.

 

Melissa Walker is a junior journalism major from Baton Rouge and serves as news editor for The Tech Talk. E-mail comments to mew018@latech.edu.