Stand up, young people

Good job, IU student body.

Really, good job. You have outdone yourselves this time.

I didn’t really think we could get lower than this. You have proved me wrong, yet again.

You have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about, do you? I’ll explain.

I took an hour Wednesday night to go up to the Frangipani Room in the IMU with fellow IDS columnist and good friend Chris Engel (don’t worry, you’ll be hearing from him too) for the second of two IU Student Association-sponsored forums held between interested students and Drew Allenspach, a senior on the men’s golf team and the student representative on the search committee for the new athletics director.

Guess how many interested students showed up?

Zero.

Needless to say, we didn’t need the full hour.

Between the eight of us, there were two IDS columnists, Allenspach, IUSA Vice President of Congress Andrew Hahn, three other student government officers and one student covering the evening for a journalism class.

Where were you, Take Back the Hall? Where were all my fiery friends on the Basketblog? Where were ... students?

According to those in attendance both Sept. 17 and last night, a total of 20 people turned out for both meetings. That’s pathetic, no other way to spin it.

Students on this campus, I have on occasion been among them, spend so much time shouting into the rain about the lack of student involvement in administrative decision-making. And yet, when finally offered an umbrella, they were nowhere to be found.

Allenspach and others there talked about a hope for an increased relationship between the athletics director and student leaders, at least at some level.

This would not be an effective way of building that relationship.

“I think,” Allenspach said, “for the students to gain credibility in an AD’s eyes, this doesn’t necessarily speak all that highly, as far as their investment into it.”

Damn right.

To risk a tortured metaphor, it is easier to throw rocks at a house than to build one. And I can understand those frustrated with a system they think will swallow their opinions without so much as a belch.

But this was your opportunity, disgruntled student, to speak up ever so softly. You will likely never come closer to being an actual part of this process than you would have last Wednesday or this Wednesday.

You lost that chance. You failed.

I sat in that same room two summers ago at a public forum for concerned persons to meet with the search committee for the first permanent provost. The place was packed, there wasn’t a seat to be had, and faculty, some students and others within and without the University took the time to voice opinions, to become a part of the process.

Wednesday, IU student body, you lost your chance to be part of that process, if only slightly. Think about that when you’re watching IU-Illinois from section JJ next January.
And the next time you start chanting “Stand up, old people,” just stop. You had your chance.

Allenspach will still do his best, armed with what little ammunition you gave him. But he’ll walk almost alone into his next committee meeting, and he has you to thank for that.

“I think that a good turnout here tonight would have been a great bargaining chip when it comes to bigger issues, like a basketball section,” Allenspach said. “You can’t necessarily just be in it when it’s convenient for you.”

Amen.

See you next Thursday.