Forum attendance shows student apathy, again

Once again Western’s student body has proven they don’t really care about anything.

What else is new?

Last week, the Student Government Association held a forum with administrators to discuss parking.

Since parking is the most talked about issue on campus, one could only assume it would be a packed house.

Wrong.

Only about 40 students showed up at DUC Theatre to discuss the parking problem. The theater has about a thousand seats. Microphones were placed in the middle aisles to accommodate the long lines of people SGA thought would want to speak.

But there weren’t any long lines.

Evidently, people suddenly changed their mind and are completely OK with the parking nightmare.

That’s news to us.

SGA should get some credit for getting the administrators who have the ability to make changes together to discuss solutions.

But, because few students showed up, little progress is likely to be made. Until students get together, combine their complaints and then pitch it to administrators, parking reform will never happen.

There’s no logical reason so many people should have missed the forum.

Sure there were probably some people in class who couldn’t make it.

Maybe there were even some off-campus students who couldn’t find a parking spot.

But for everyone else, shame on you.

Come on, you didn’t even have to walk up the Hill to get to the forum. All you had to do was walk to DUC.

You didn’t even really have to say anything. You could have spoken with your mere presence.

Students are plenty willing to whine and complain to others about every problem they experience.

But when it comes time to talk to the “big guys” in charge, students

aren’t willing to sacrifice an hour of their life to discuss parking changes.

What’s one hour, when many spend three per week searching for

parking?

In essence, students have lost the right to complain about this issue.

It’s kind of like national politics. If you voted in the last election, sure, you have the right to complain. But if you treated election day as an afternoon to sit on your butt, eat Ho-ho’s and Ding-dongs and watch Oprah, you’ve got no voice.

And if you didn’t attend Thursday’s parking forum, you’ve got no reason

to whine about parking 30 minutes away from class.

You lost your chance for a one-on-one face-off with President Ransdell and the parking crew.

So now you have to suck it up and deal with the unfortunate

consequences.

You deserve it.

•Feel depressed now? Secretly wanna complain? Here’s a chance to reveal yourself. E-mail Randy Deere, chairman of the parking committee, at [email protected].

This editorial represents the majority opinion of the Herald’s 11-member board of student editors.