2008 Woodie Awards
A for Apathy
Ethan Moore
Issue date: 3/31/06 Section: Opinion
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So we all have things to do, people to see, classes to attend, and tests to take - we're a busy student body that can't be burdened with paying attention to the unimportant details of our campus. After all, we've got enough on our plates. Who really has time to read more than they are assigned for class or go to a meeting that isn't required?
It makes perfect sense to me then why so few people on this campus have any clue about the actions of our Student Senate. This past term it has been my job to write about Senate for the Profile, covering the things that I assumed students would care about. I've gone to every Senate meeting and tried to figure out as much as I could about what they were doing that affected our campus.
It would be vain of me to say that everyone should read the stories I wrote about Senate, and I never had any expectation that my pages would be the most popular in our publication. But I know my senator posted notes in my residence hall bathrooms, and I got e-mails from my class senator that outlined what was going on in the Mills Library every week. It seems like there is a wealth of information out there about Senate's activities, and a person could find out just about anything if they wanted and looked for it (and didn't even look that hard).
Yet, when I went out to ask people for some sort of evaluation of the outgoing Senate in order to gain some perspective about what the incoming Senate was facing, most of the people I talked to said that they couldn't answer the question. They hadn't been following Senate, they didn't really know what was going on, they said. While a few admitted they just hadn't been interested, most claimed they didn't really know what was going on because there was no information about what Senate had been doing.
I can't buy that, when I know that there are notes posted and e-mailed to constituents on most occasions, and when I know that I printed at least a few words every couple of weeks, and when I most certainly know that every Senate meeting is open to the public. So if people just don't know what is happening, it is because they're not looking. They're not reading, and they're not showing up to the meetings. I actually only counted about 45 students at the speeches and debate for the recent election, many of whom were already on Senate. That's impressive.
It makes perfect sense to me then why so few people on this campus have any clue about the actions of our Student Senate. This past term it has been my job to write about Senate for the Profile, covering the things that I assumed students would care about. I've gone to every Senate meeting and tried to figure out as much as I could about what they were doing that affected our campus.
It would be vain of me to say that everyone should read the stories I wrote about Senate, and I never had any expectation that my pages would be the most popular in our publication. But I know my senator posted notes in my residence hall bathrooms, and I got e-mails from my class senator that outlined what was going on in the Mills Library every week. It seems like there is a wealth of information out there about Senate's activities, and a person could find out just about anything if they wanted and looked for it (and didn't even look that hard).
Yet, when I went out to ask people for some sort of evaluation of the outgoing Senate in order to gain some perspective about what the incoming Senate was facing, most of the people I talked to said that they couldn't answer the question. They hadn't been following Senate, they didn't really know what was going on, they said. While a few admitted they just hadn't been interested, most claimed they didn't really know what was going on because there was no information about what Senate had been doing.
I can't buy that, when I know that there are notes posted and e-mailed to constituents on most occasions, and when I know that I printed at least a few words every couple of weeks, and when I most certainly know that every Senate meeting is open to the public. So if people just don't know what is happening, it is because they're not looking. They're not reading, and they're not showing up to the meetings. I actually only counted about 45 students at the speeches and debate for the recent election, many of whom were already on Senate. That's impressive.