Forums on campus have become the lingua franca when it comes to interpreting the thoughts, needs and opinions of students on and off campus.

You can post flyers all day, send all the e-mails you want, and make 10 different commercials, but forums are a language everyone understands.

Although many forums work well to get ideas in the open and bring light to otherwise undiscussed issues, it’s the action afterward, or lack thereof, that often makes them ineffective. More often than not, the same attitudes expressed in forums are not changed by simply sharing them with others. That, quite frankly, does nothing but fill a room with hot air.

It’s interesting to see how student concern is immune to post-forum action, but never fails to draw a crowd when a forum takes place. I hardly doubt the Romans would have become the civilization they were if they simply ignored all of the ideas shared in their forums.

Paul Beasley

Louisville sophomore