Come together to create change

By: Erin McCarthy

Posted: 3/25/09

"Get involved. The world is run by people who show up."

I don't actually know who said that first, but whoever it was probably didn't go to Western Illinois University. I say this because of all the student leaders here at Western Illinois, many of us tend to wear half a dozen hats and average about four hours of sleep a night.

Getting the campus community involved is all too similar to pulling teeth, and merely finding the energy to attempt to get students riled up about anything is just as difficult. There is an abundance of apathy at Western Illinois, and the effects can be extremely disheartening.

Of course there are folks here that work their bums off to make things happen on campus. Their efforts are not put forth in vain, but for a university of this size, it seems that there ought to be a lot more active students.

A friend of mine who is in the graduate program for Recreation, Park and Tourism Administration received her undergrad at Messiah College in Grantham, Penn. After a few weeks at Western Illinois, she was left wondering, "Where are all the students?"

At Messiah College, my friend would regularly hop a college bus for Washington, D.C. to attend protests and rallies. These buses would be packed with students eager to voice their opposition to war, their support of various bills and their enthusiasm for the First Amendment.

Aside from their political involvement, students at Messiah College were not afraid to make demonstrations on campus if their college was not meeting their standards.

"When people had a problem with the college, they let them know about it," she said. "We had students laying flat on the Mall, forming picket lines, and passing around fliers all the time about all sorts of issues."

If witnessing the simple indolence of my fellow classmates hasn't been hard enough for me, hearing my friend go on about how other campuses are flourishing with student involvement was downright heartbreaking.

It seems pretty depressing thinking about how the most excitement that has happened in my five years at Western Illinois was when the Student Government Association voted to name Caroline Grote Hall (back then we called it New Hall).

The campus reacted in an uproar when the announcement was made to name the newest addition to Western Illinois Reagan Hall. Nearly a hundred students packed into the SGA meeting with their opinions and alternative suggestions for names. And sure enough, the residential facility was eventually named Caroline Grote Hall in June 2006, after a former Western Illinois teacher and dean of students from 1906 to 1935.

As of late on our campus there has been a constant buzz about student fees. Students seem to be disgruntled about the increase in student fees. However, there was not a single student to speak out against them at the March 10 SGA meeting.

Where are you people?

As a free speech absolutist, I will fight to the death anyone's right to speak his or her mind, regardless of whether or not I agree. But the silence and lethargy that overwhelms this campus is unbearable.

This Saturday, March 28, there will be a peace rally in Chandler Park from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Everyone from Western Illinois and Macomb communities is invited to join the Campus Greens and the Macomb Area Alliance for Peace and Justice in exercising their right to free speech.

I am looking forward to seeing who will show up.