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Higher Learning (1995)

Rate: 8
Viewed: 1/15

HighL
1/15: Higher Learning brings out many memories when I think of my college days.

I went through a lot the first year: the parties and clubs, the financial aid situations, the friendships, the double murders, the varsity sport stuff, the roommate from hell, the security cops, the riot, etc. Yep, I survived through two murders on my campus in the span of five months, and one of the deceased was my former classmate in elementary school.

On the other hand, I knew somebody who used a computer at the library to hack into the mainframe to drop a couple of zeroes in his tuition bill. Also, the library didn't have metal detectors. As a result, students routinely stole books from there and then sold them online to pay their way through school. Even drugs and money were hidden inside them to make transactions.

I had met some Remys throughout the year, and my roommate from hell was exactly like him. They were always socially immature white farm boys from Nebraska, Kansas, Idaho, South Dakota, etc. Once, I witnessed a massive riot after the neighboring school's basketball team lost in the Final Four.

As hard as it is to believe, because the security cops on my campus had invariably asked students for their identification, my friend and I came up with many different fake cards including a blank white card for display, yet we were allowed to pass through the checkpoints because they never looked at the cards directly. Ultimately, we knew they were nothing but powerless parking ticket writers who were not allowed to carry guns on the job.

Once, a student investigative newspaper reporter pressed the emergency button as a test to see how long it would take for security to come. Despite being 100 feet from the building where the security office was located at, nobody came for 45 minutes. That's why I can relate a lot to Higher Learning. The situations depicted are awfully realistic although they may seem over the top at times, but I've actually experienced them.

Of course, because of director John Singleton, there are plenty of Boyz n the Hood reminders throughout. Laurence Fishburne is Professor Furious, with pipe smoking and all that, who counsels Omar Epps' Malik as if he's Tre Styles. And there's Doughboy who's philosophizing about the meaning of school and life before being branded as a hypocrite because all he wants to do is get high on weed. Oddly, he's more interested in getting an apology from the white guy for calling a female "black bitch" than the rape of a white girl. Hey, is that Morris Chestnut running on the relay team?

Anyway, the rape situation is accurate as alcohol is almost always involved, and it remains a serious problem that plagues college campuses to this day. The administration officials are usually dismissive of such situations and don't take them seriously, and the campus police is next to hopeless in these matters. The truth is: college is big business. Every student is a walking dollar sign in the eyes of the administration.

What's unique about college is there's an influx of ideas that it's easy for anyone to be impressed because they are new, fresh, and exciting which make them feel alive. It's also a very dangerous time as some will act on these ideas and take them to the extreme. That's why alcohol poisoning is such a regular occurrence as there's always somebody taken to the hospital on any given night.

On the other hand, I've met numerous people that don't belong in college. In fact, I was shocked to see a mentally retarded student in my class on the first day of school. More than 75% of my friends never came back after the first year because they were not either academically cut out for the work or able to afford the bill. That's why it's crucial to do well in high school in order to make the transition as seamless as possible which is simply not based on receiving stellar grades but knowing how to read, write, and do math on the college level.

Somebody like Malik has no chance of making through college academically although being a track star excuses him from meeting the obligation. He's just a slave who's being funded through scholarship which is contingent on his ongoing track performance. Incidentally, there's an interesting reference to the sniper incident because it did happen at The University of Texas in Austin.

All in all, Higher Learning can be unintentionally funny at times, but it's close to the truth.