Now, I'm new here.
Yet the last time I checked, most of us college students hadsome sense of financial understanding.
We have to: books, tuition, room/board, alcohol and condoms. Thestereotypical Ball State lifestyle can be quite expensive (Mileagemay very with the last two.)
Students are budget tight-wads by nature, so how in ourpenny-pinching minds do we think that we can get away with fundinga new student center?
We complain about parking increases, let alone money for a newcenter.
I'll admit, the students here have been put through quite thenumber of experiences this year, and perhaps we deserve a littlepat on the back.
Still, we should really take advantage of what we havefirst.
It's ever so ironic to me that we're petitioning for a newcenter for student involvement, when our student involvement is allbut existent.
I speak of involvement not in our organizations, leadershipgroups, or media outlets, although there are many good soulsinvolved in each.
I speak of campus involvement period. "Spirit" is what I thinkthey called it back in the day.
Walk around other campuses across this nation for a day, andyou'll see an abundance of school-related appeal, helping to keepthe campus spirit alive, regardless of the school's athletics.
Look at Indiana University's football team.
Too often here at Ball State do I see students walking aroundwith hats and clothes sporting the name and logos of randomuniversities throughout the country, although mostly Big Tenschools like Purdue and Indiana are featured.
Ask that soul why they are wearing a hat from a university otherthan the one they attend, and they'll say, "I like the school'ssports teams."
To me, I only hear, "Well, I wasn't good enough to get inthere."
Keep looking at other schools, and you'll see student bodiesstand unconditionally behind their schools.
If an election, resignation, shooting or worse happened at anyother school, students would go about their daily lives but pulltogether in campus spirit and thought.
More importantly, you'll a see a (slightly) larger percentage ofstudents care about the effects of such circumstances; even more sothan the cause.
With one final look, you'll see a student body stay at theirschool for an entire weekend.
Wow, what a novel idea.
Sure, you get the occasional travel-lover shipping off, but forthe most part, students go away to school and stay away atschool.
Here at Ball State, especially on the weekends, we're lucky tokeep half the student population in Muncie, let alone interested indoing something on campus.
We're going to need a little more than a handful of students,Student Government Association included, to back up a project asmassive as a new student center; especially after having just cutthree sports teams and decreasing funding for other sports.
Hell, we're still looking for a president.
Perhaps SGA would be better suited on efforts to get ourstudents involved, especially if that means working with otherstudent organizations to do so.
Perhaps it would be wise for us students to pay attention towhat's going on and actually make an effort to get involved oncampus.
You want a new student center?
How about new students?
Write to Dave at heydave@bewilderedsociety.com
http://www.bewilderedsociety.com
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