clap if you believe

I really like Riley’s article. I appreciate his nostalgia for the past—a past that probably never existed in quite the way he depicts it. I also appreciate his earnestness as he pleads Peter Pan-like for writing centers to never grow up. Part of me—the part that does not want to admit that I am becoming less prone to youthful idealism—believes that he is right. Maybe the price of respect is too high. Maybe there is a fountain of youth on the margins of the university. I doubt it, though. I believe, instead, that the writing center has had a complicated past and that it will have a complicated future. And I believe that a maturing body of theory is healthy. And I believe that the university—while not uncomplicated—is less depressing than Riley seems to believe.