If I were President

Just in case you’ve been in a coma for the past year, you’ve been on Saturn or you’re a freshman, here’s some news for you: This year marks the first in the tenure of IU President Michael McRobbie.\nMcRobbie replaced Adam Herbert, who got the boot because various people were unhappy with his job performance. Yeah, you heard me right. A president was removed because people thought he was doing a bad job. Fancy that.\nAnyway, that got me thinking. With the new leadership, there are bound to be changes. What changes would I like to see? \nWell, first of all – and, most importantly – I would love to see some changes to the seating arrangement at Assembly Hall. I feel it would provide a much-needed morale boost to the IU student body to have a legitimate student section for home games. I’ve watched a lot of sports in my day – maybe too much – and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it would be that it’s hard to play in a loud environment. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned here at IU, it’s that a college student can be one of the loudest animals on the planet. Pretty much all good basketball programs have strong student sections (see the Cameron Crazies) and if we want to have one of those again, we should follow suit. As a great man once said, “Crowds help win games.”\nThis brings me to my next argument. The low point of my summer was the day Terry Hoeppner passed away. He was a great coach, well on his way to crafting a real football program here at Indiana, where there hasn’t been one in quite a while. More importantly, he was a great man. He deserves some kind of major honor. At the very least, something should be named for him. Maybe this recognition is actually coming, but being kept secret. If not, though, I would really like to see it happen. \nI’ll stop infuriating the sports section now and move to more universal changes. In my year-plus here, there have been many things I have seen that confuse me. Probably the worst of these has been the dormitory laundry situation. I cannot for the life of me figure out why students living in the dorms have to pay to do laundry. Students pay a fairly hefty sum to attend this school, and it seems odd to tack on the extra cost of washing and drying clothes. I suppose I can understand making us pay for food, but that is at least included in room and board charges. Why not just make the washers and dryers available for free? It would make a lot of lives (well, at least mine) easier.\nOf course, I am just one voice among many. Surely others want to see change, and McRobbie will have a tough job on his hands finding a balance amid the clamor.