Four years of Union Board memories

This is my last IDS column. I have written on a bi-weekly basis in my position as Union Board president, but with Union Board's campus wide elections Tuesday, my days are numbered. \nI have become nostalgic in my old age, with graduation in May quickly approaching, and have taken to reminiscing about my most vivid college memories. You will probably not be surprised to learn that most of them happen to involve Union Board. I hope it is not out of the ordinary that many of my best memories involve Union Board programs. Follow me through a brief event history of my four years in Bloomington. I bet we have shared a lot of memories.\nFreshman Year -- I transferred to IU from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, missing out on a full semester of Union Board programming. To think that if I had been on campus, I would have had the opportunity to see Mikhail Gorbachev address a capacity crowd at the not yet renovated IU Auditorium.\nAlthough not very active in Union Board, I attended many events during the spring semester of my freshman year. I was a regular at the Films Series in the Whittenberger Auditorium of the Indiana Memorial Union and also frequented the IMU Gallery. I found this area not only a great place to study and view wonderful art, but a hot spot for entertainment in the evenings. Whether it was live jazz or acoustic performances on the weekends or improv comedy with Full Frontal, the IMUG was a great place to see free live entertainment then as it is now.\nSophomore Year -- Getting Coach Knight to lecture to the student body was the focus of my second semester on Union Board. Introducing him before a crowd of 4,000 or so Hoosier fans at a public lecture in Assembly Hall is a memory I will never forget. \nAnother program that is etched in my mind was seeing panels from the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt in Alumni Hall. I had never before seen the Quilt, which memorializes those who have died of AIDS, by displaying panels depicting their lives. My mother was in town that weekend, and I vividly remember both of us walking through the display moved to tears by the powerful message the quilt conveys.\nJunior Year -- One of the most worthwhile events I have attended at IU was the Hate Crimes Teach-In with keynote speaker Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center. This event brought together students, faculty and community members to discuss how Bloomington can respond to the hate that exists in our community. Dees gave a powerful talk, and the breakout sessions after his lecture gave members of the community a chance to meet and discuss their mutual goals for our community. \nUnion Board's Little 500 Concert featuring the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters was another event not to be missed. I enjoyed the show along with a capacity crowd at Assembly Hall, and this show made my Little 500 weekend my junior year the most outstanding to date.\nSenior Year -- As my time in Bloomington draws to a close I have attended as many events as I can, not wanting to miss out on anything in my final year on campus. General Colin Powell's lecture and Union Board's production of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" were my personal favorites, and they occurred on the same weekend. Powell proved to not only be an inspirational figure but also a hilarious speaker, and his hour long talk entitled "Challenges of a Changing World" was captivating.\nUnion Board elections will occur Tuesday at Ballantine Hall, the lobby of the Main Library and the East Lounge. We have a great group of candidates running in this year's election, and I urge you to vote to determine who will shape the Union Board programs IU students will attend in the coming semesters.\nUnion Board has a 91-year history of providing events for students. I am proud to leave office knowing that the 2000 Indiana Memorial Union Board of Directors strove to uphold this rich tradition. Union Board's strength is not in its name but in the shared memories it creates. Union Board attempts to provide the events that you will remember long after you leave Bloomington. On a campus of 36,000, we are all going to have very different experiences at college. But with more than 350,000 people attending Union Board events during my four years on campus, I guarantee we have all shared something.