It feels great to be back here on Voice of the Campus. The time off has been great, and I had some time to step back and take a good look at what’s been happening on campus. So far the current SGA has avoided any scandal, and the end of Steinberg’s presidency seems like it might actually happen. So far so good.
Besides that things have been running pretty smoothly, giving me time to kick back and enjoy some of the recent events on campus. The talent show was pretty entertaining. The type of presentation that can be put on in the auditorium is impressive, and of course the performers were top notch for the most part.
Jesse Jackson also spoke in that auditorium to a less-than-packed house. For all the hype that this man can generate, hearing him speak in person was actually disappointing. Maybe this just wasn’t his audience. But for the most part he stayed on pretty safe subjects: gotta keep affirmative action, fight for voting rights, unjust war, etc. etc.
One interesting point that Jackson did make was when he spoke about being better neighbors with the other countries in our hemisphere. Something that almost nobody cares to worry about is our neighbors to the south. Unless a giant corporation is looking for a way to exploit its resources or we’re trying to keep their citizens out of our country, we don’t tend to pay them much attention.
This might have worked in the past, but if our nation is to maintain its position as the world’s leading nation, things do need to change. Throughout history powerful nations that have isolated themselves have always fallen. This should be of some concern, but we’re too worried about terrorist crossing the Mexican border. Only in America could racism be dressed up as national security.
So how do you combat isolation? As we constantly see on campus, it is quite difficult. We all have or own personal concerns that tend to give us a narrow view of circumstances. Sometimes we end up dropping the ball on important things, similar to the way several student organizations were deactivated due to missing a training session.
Director of Student Activities Sharron Evans has her reasons for wanting the students to attend the meeting, and the students have their reason for not being able to make the meeting. So we see Student Activities isolating itself from the student clubs that bring this campus to life.
But this type of behavior is not new on this campus. We can just recall the treatment that students received from the university president during the strike in ’04. But all hope is not lost. The student organizations have begun to get organized, and hopefully Sharron Evans will have a heart and allow these student organizations to be active during this semester.
We can only hope that at some point common sense will prevail. It’s just a shame that we have to put up with this type of behavior.