They yell and scream about unfairness. They point fingers at administrators and say, "you're the real problem." They send letters and columns to the Daily Egyptian, blanketing our Op-Ed pages to voice their opposition to the tuition increase proposed by Chancellor Walter Wendler.
But when the chancellor has an open forum to address concerns about the 18 percent increase, only three students out of more than 19,000 enrolled on campus show up. Three. That was the number of students who attended Tuesday's open forum in the Lesar Law Building Auditorium. Pitiful.
Only embarrassing can describe the turnout, if that term is even deserving. Perhaps it is easier for students to complain when they do not have to put too much effort into it. Perhaps the passion and angst displayed by disgruntled students was wasted vocally, and they were too tired to face Wendler in person. Pathetic.
In most professions, credibility is everything, and it is hard to place any credibility with the student body after the dismal attendance at Tuesday's forum. The Daily Egyptian does thank the three students who did show.
A word of advice to the angst-filled, anti-tuition increase students: Words, no matter how passionately and loudly they are voiced, and no matter how often they are repeated, have little to no impact when spoken in the abstract. Tuesday's forum was anything but. It was a real event. And Chancellor Wendler, who has received scathing criticism - fair or unfair - for his proposal, was there. But you, the students, were not. Extremely unfortunate.
So, Tuesday's event amounted to nothing more than another example of students failing to step up to the plate when it really counts. Another forum is scheduled for Thursday. If possible - and we hope we're not asking too much - maybe the student body can perhaps, perhaps shatter Tuesday's attendance by turning what has been all talk into some needed action.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
