I often joke to my friends that I “wouldn’t survive at a normal university.” Usually, when I say this, I mean that I value EMU’s small class sizes and the amount of grace given to us as students. It’s important for me to be able to develop relationships with my professors outside of class and to not have my ultimate grade depend on my attendance and test-taking. 

I would describe most of the EMU classes I’ve taken as collaborative learning spaces: the students are learning at their own pace, and the teacher is learning as well how to teach the class better and often discovering the overlap in what they’re teaching and what a student is majoring in (despite the subjects not being in the same program) that adds value to the overall course. 

The stories I hear from my friends enrolled in public universities are so far removed from my own college experiences. Their stories often entail an inconsiderate professor, a mountain of homework to do, or rigid university rules. I think in terms of university rules, EMU probably has a stricter standard compared to colleges and universities nationally. 

However, in terms of professors and out-of-class work, I’ve found EMU to be complementary to my own learning style. Everything feels flexible, and I’m often reassured by professors that my grade isn’t everything. If I had to guess, I’d say these classroom dynamics arise out of our professors’ tendencies to be trauma-informed. 

Now that I’m nearing the halfway point of junior year, I worry most about graduating and leaving EMU. My life experiences prior to being here often displayed a lot less grace. Messing up or doing something wrong, especially in academia, was met with some form of consequence or punishment. The want to not mess up stemmed from fear of consequence, not a desire for growth.

It’s hard to draw the line between just enough grace and too much grace, but I wonder if EMU is blurring that line too much. Are we truly challenged with an endless wealth of grace? I want to graduate from EMU being prepared to handle “the real world.” Rather than educate us with grace in a world greatly lacking grace, should EMU be more conscious of our level of preparedness? 

It seems to me that grace at EMU varies a lot by program, and as someone in the peacebuilding program, perhaps my experience of grace on campus is a much more positive one than someone in a hard science or math program. Maybe I’m being prepared for the peacebuilding field while my fellow peers are being met with less grace to prepare them for the nursing field.