With Student Government Association elections all said and done, the campus has started to return to its standard acquiescent self.
To the 4,000-some odd people that voted: good job. Thank you for being informed, or at least for acting like you care.
It's impressive to know that this total numbers doubled from last year's overall count. Regardless of reasoning -- it would be absurd for this count not to continue to rise.
However, one of Team Tietz's main pulls seemed to be his Slate's quest to improve, "protect and beautify" Ball State's campus, namely through the recycling program.
I commend Ben Tietz and Co. for winning the popular vote, and I truly wish Tietz and his slate the best of luck in the coming year. Having a goal revolving around our campus environment, both spiritually and physically, is a great idea.
But I must point out: this all starts with the students.
Don't get me wrong, it isn't to say that Tietz, and for that matter Jayson Manship in the remainder of his term, are on a dead-end path when it comes to wanting to "beautify" our campus.
This is absolutely not true -- there are plenty of things that SGA can do to help achieve this goal.
But a clean house isn't one that's fixed-up only once a year -- it's done regularly, religiously and with preventive caution.
By that I refer back to the students. Sure, we can clean every last quarter-inch of dirt from out under Frog Baby. Come to think of it, maybe our President is hiding under there with some roly-poly bugs ... and perhaps a hundred million in insurance?
Well, regardless of such sandbox dreams, we can clean this campus once a year with a deep scrub (Baby included) but it will only stay beautiful if we intend to keep it that way.
Cleaning is an ongoing process.
It's the college student bathroom theory: clean up after each use, and you won't have to procrastinate doing it for three weeks while small life forms develop in the inner-most crevices of your cracks. (And feel free to interpret that one as you want.)
To illustrate my point further, just look around campus and pick up a cigarette butt.
Find 'em all?
As a matter of fact, I have heard that SGA members attempted such a monstrous feat last fall -- and it took a good amount of time to get it done.
If we were to store all of the random butts left around campus over the past five years, we may very well be able to put three-quarters of the Student Center to use.
Not being a smoker, I'm not sure exactly how one's mental state can be reduced to a point of idiocy where one concludes that the most logical thing to do with a smoldering piece of paper and tobacco is to throw it on the ground, stomp on it and walk away.
Are these the same fools who find it perfectly acceptable to smoke while filling up their tanks with flammable liquid at a Shell station?
I'd love to tell these people to stop, but for some reason they keep disappearing into thin air.
In the end, it matters what we, the students, do to help our environment. Recycling can help, but only if we do it. (Tietz has vowed to make us more aware of it next year.) Cleaning the campus can do wonders, but only if we put forth the effort to maintain it now and forever.
There's your pep talk.
So what are you waiting for? Finish what you're doing, toss this paper into the nearest recycling bin (or to a neighbor) and start beautifying.
Just don't forget the cracks.
Write to Dave at heydave@bewilderedsociety.com
Visit http://www.bewilderedsociety.com
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
