As part of our undergraduate education, we take classes everyday, do readings, go to internships, have off campus jobs, have club positions, attend events and lectures, do lab work, write papers, present at the undergraduate symposium—all in preparation for the grand prize at the end: getting a job/graduate acceptance. There are a variety of experiences that make up our undergraduate education, and one of them is the background professional education that is meant to radioactively settle into our skins and we walk out of this place with a degree and an understanding of how to hold ourselves in the professional world.

While our college experiences are meant to provide this unacknowledged learning opportunity, there is also opportunity for what I would consider toxic radiation. How much should we be paying attention to the professional members of the UNE community?

I’m not simply complaining about the painstaking effort that we all put into our email correspondence that often receives a 2-second glance and a one sentence reply—I have come to expect and recognize this response from certain faculty and staff. What I am talking about is a deeper disrespect, negligence, and inappropriateness shown by any number of professional adults on this campus.

When I am sitting at an important and crucial MLK event, listening ardently to the speakers from the NAACP or community revitalization projects, I look to the UNE Professional Faculty and Staff to see how I should be behaving; I have never been to a dinner where the plates of food cost more than the money in my bank account. You should be a shining example at a table of students, and yet I see some texting during speeches and even leaving when they’ve fulfilled their social presence.

I will tell you, students, as a senior I am frightened. I am fearful that the moment I walk across the stage to receive my diplomas that I will look out into the audience and see professional staff on their phones, not paying attention to the human beings they’ve helped shape. I am fearful that there will come a day when I am too concerned with textual correspondence that I get caught by the police or by young people, or I disrespect someone who has so kindly invited me to share in a night of celebration with them.

I urge students to not take this education lying down; please remain critical of those adults in the academic community. If they are setting the standards for professionalism in the workplace, please let me remain forever an amateur.