UW-Madison freshman, Jesse Vandermeer, expressed his ire Thursday at tour groups introducing prospective students to the campus.
“God, they’re just…they’re everywhere,” said Vandermeer of the high schoolers touring the campus with their parents. “And part of you is like, ‘Oh, aren’t they cute?’ but then you try to get around them on the East Campus Mall, and Jesus!”
Vandermeer, 18, said he didn’t blame the students, but simply felt they were too young to understand how to successfully navigate a college campus.
“Like, I understand they have tour guides and have to be supervised by their parents and whatever, but these kids are what? 16? 17? How can you expect anybody at that age to understand the problems and complexities associated with getting across campus in five minutes, max, so you can get to the dining hall for lunch before all the good seats are taken? They even stop at crosswalks! Are you kidding me?”
Asked if he had participated in such a tour before he enrolled at Madison, Vandermeer said, “Jeez, I don’t remember. It was so long ago, you know?”
However, campus tour guide Caitie Malone said she remembered Vandermeer from a tour last year, recalling him as “terrified and intimidated” by campus and the students.
“Evidently he’s matured in the intervening…six months.”