Apathy. Indifference. Laziness. Call it what you will, Baker University has a problem with students who simply do not seem to care.
An alarming number of students seem to lack passion for anything other than drinking and partying. Many students have had a hard time choosing a major because they do not want to dedicate their lives to something they are not passionate about.
However, the problem goes beyond choosing a major. Most students don’t seem to care about what is happening on campus either.
Baker’s Student Activities Council is one organization that has felt the effects of student apathy. With the group’s officers as the only people in attendance at its meetings, it has been difficult for the group to know what students want to see on campus.
Last year, student senate regularly found itself unable to conduct business because the organization rarely met quorum. However, with a new officers-and a president who hopefully does not plan to cut meetings short in order to catch the latest episode of Nip Tuck-the group is trying to say goodbye to the woes of its past. An informational meeting was held this week for students interested in running for class officer positions. However, the problem seems to be finding people who give a damn about anything.
It’s a new school year though. Time for change. Time for passion. Time to care. While we can slide by living our lives of uncaring apathy in our four or five sheltered years at Baker, we are supposed to be functioning members of society when we leave this place. Why not start now? This is our school. We are the ones who wear our orange with Baker pride. How can we have pride in something we have absolutely nothing to do with?
Furthermore, if we students do not care about anything, we give up all power to the administration, which can do whatever it wants with that power. Even with the best of intentions, the administration cannot know what is best for students as well as the students themselves do. Everything on campus affects students, from the decisions made by student senate to the changes made in the general education curriculum to the entertainment SAC brings to campus.
Baker is a small enough campus that not only are students affected by everything that goes on, but students can actually affect what happens here and make a real difference by getting involved. If it’s not you getting involved and not the person standing next to you, who is it going to be?