As the new semester commences, I have seen a lot of professors of good minds, assign readings without reason. In just the third week of school, I am behind on 300 pages of reading, even with 200 pages already under my belt. In my current situation, combined with the complaints of friends and classmates alike, and the faculty’s all or nothing attitude, I have come to one conclusion: reading must be banned from Loyola classes. Effective: immediately.

Life without reading will first bring the convenience of not having to dedicate three hours a day to the task. For everything one must do, and wants to do in the day, such as appointments, lunch dates, exercise and the like, there will now be time without stress.

My BlackBerry calendar is full of classes, work-study, practices and reminders to call people, and I can find very little room to fit reading in without disturbing my sleep. Without this obstacle, my days will be just as busy, but will give more time for leisure and even self-improvement; my skills on piano will surely improve with time to practice more.

The new decree will revolutionize liberal arts education. Class structure will change, no longer focused around the boring reading assignments that students skimmed through an hour earlier. Classes will now be more open to fuller lectures (requiring attendance for passing), discussion into the unknown and learning exercises of various forms (more improvised than before).

This new structure will cancel out the silly dependence on literature and others studies. Literature is quite suffocating, with too many rules on how writing is created, and on how life is lived. There is no need to dote on the teachings of Plato or Adorno; we should be open to form our own philosophies in this constantly modernizing world. Why do we let the strict rules of such things as haikus and sonnets constrict our minds when we should be free to show our professors, and Shakespeare himself, who the real artists are?

Let’s start today, with a fresh mind and an open notebook, to take in the world around us, and move past the writings of others which have corrupted us so. Loyola, under this canon, will be on the path to greatness. Let’s become the first university to leave dwelling in the past in the dust, and form the original, proactive liberal arts education.