From City Hall to Assembly Hall

Students are apathetic. Students just don’t give a damn. Students are not active enough in their communities.\nYeah, we know – we’ve heard it before. And we’re hearing it again, after last Tuesday’s less than impressive student turnout for Bloomington’s municipal elections.\nWait, there were elections?\nYep. And the results are in: We’ve kept the same mayor, and our city government is dominated by the Dems … no thanks to you. \nWell, actually, that’s not entirely true. At the Teter Quad polling facility, a whopping 11 students showed up to vote. Impressive, huh? We hit double digits this year!\nWhile the stereotypes about student apathy may be dead-on, they are also irrelevant in the context of the Bloomington municipal elections. The truth is that, simply put, students don’t really have much of a stake in the political affairs of the surrounding community. Although IU students might have Bloomington addresses, they live in the sheltered bubble of higher education, where meal points are gold and movies and buses are free with a student ID. In addition, IU is a state sovereign institution, meaning that its rules and regulations are dictated by state law, rather than by local ordinances. As a result, our stake in the outside community is not immense by any stretch of the imagination.\nBesides, when it comes down to it, the interests of college kids are often not compatible with those of area residents. Noise ordinances? Who needs them? All they do is put a damper on our fun. And future increases in property taxes don’t really hold our attention very well, since we’re only renting our crappy apartments for the next few years anyway. Mark Kruzan (Mark who?) might be sitting at City Hall only a few blocks away from the edge of campus, but how he handles his city is far from our foremost concern – that honor belongs to the age-old debate over whether to hit the snooze button or actually wake up and go to class. \nStill, we shouldn’t just sit on our hands and wallow in our own apathy. Maybe city policies don’t have a huge impact on our day-to-day lives, but try this idea on for size: What if we did something crazy like participate in our own student government elections? What if something really farfetched were to happen, like more than one party running for the IU Student Association executive positions? Maybe more campus groups could voice opinions and concerns, rather than leaving it to the usual coalition of greeks, business students and, of course, greek business students, to decide the fate of the campus.\nDo you want more bus routes? Do you think we should have a recycling center on campus? Are you dreaming of having a Taco Bell in the Union? Then speak up! Even though it is overwhelming at times, this is your campus, and you have a say in where it’s going.\nDespite the fact that many students have no desire to ever set foot anywhere south of Third Street or north of 17th, our stake in everything that lies in between is enormous.