Why Trinity, Still?

Alex Gervais ’28

Exec. Opinion and Design Editor

“Why Trinity?” It’s a question all of us have been asked before. We were once all future Bantams, trying to envision our future on a campus we’d only been to a handful of times. This weekend, hundreds of potential Bantams will take on this same task as Welcome Weekend envelopes our campus in celebration, pandering and surprisingly good food at Mather. It’s a question my fellow editors and a contributor ponder in this week’s opinion section.

With our (hopefully) future Bantams in mind, I decided this week was an opportunity to ask a similar but different question: “why Trinity, still?” 

When I first applied to Trinity, I felt like I knew what I wanted: a small, liberal arts school with an active social life and a strong education. I wanted a place where I felt like I could excel, but still grow; where I could have the involvement and lifestyle of a small liberal arts school but paired with the opportunities of a city. After dozens of applications and acceptances, it was Trinity’s strong financial aid that stood out, a beacon of hope in the true wilderness that is college admissions. This story is no stranger for many students here; when I ask them “why Trinity?” I hear a version of that exact same response incredibly often, especially an emphasis on financial aid.  

While the choice to come to Trinity in the first place was indeed an important one, to me the choice to stay is even more important. I’ll be the first one to tell the world our campus has its challenges, read my opinions most weeks and that much is ardently clear. It is exorbitantly expensive to go here, with our sticker price quickly approaching six-figures. Despite that hefty price tag, we still face economic woes, the school facing down an operating deficit as President Lugo took the reins last fall. Apathy sometimes seems all too normal among our student body, especially in the realm of politics and protest. And the food is, well, the food (admitted students make sure to ask any student you meet on campus about pork loin Sunday nights at Mather). 

Yet, I can’t imagine going anywhere else. There is something about this place that, even when a pipe bursts and floods your dorm and you seem somehow physically unable to understand simple calc one concepts, keeps you itching to come back to campus even after a brief Trin Days at home. There’s a magnetic pull that the Chapel has, seeing it on the horizon as you drive back into Hartford and being reminded of how much this place means. The people I’ve met here, the academic opportunities, the insane-at-times but ultimately lovable culture, all of it makes Trinity the fantastic Trinity it is.

To our incoming Bantams, when you think about your “why Trinity?” think of yourself years from now, think about what you want your college experience to be. You’ll walk around the library and see students procrastinating their readings an hour deep into what was supposed to be a five-minute Tik Tok break; you’ll gaze over the quad and make eye contact with a shirtless dude playing spikeball;  you’ll spend six dollars on a drink from Peter B’s and wonder if a daily Chai Charger could possibly fit into your college budget. You’ll have the chance to decide if you can see yourself as a part of this community, to deem your own “why Trinity” better than your “why anywhere else.” I encourage you to think about that future, about if you can see yourself stepping on the plaque after graduation in four years, if you can see yourself having the college experience you want to have here.  

To our current Bantams, think about your “why Trinity, still?” All of us came here with our canned answer to “why Trinity?,” but have we fulfilled that answer? Maybe you came so you could be at a small liberal arts school in a city, maybe you came because you wanted to research with a specific professor, maybe you came because you wanted to join greek life. For whatever reason you came, and for whatever reason you stayed; it’s the staying that’s the most important part.