Speak out, get active!

Who among the student body has never complained about University policies? Who has gotten an outrageous bursar bill without reflexively cursing the University's management of funds? Who in the sciences has not lamented the inadequate funding of research? Who in the dorms has not whined about living on a "dry campus?" Who hasn't kvetched about the lack of diversity or unyielding attendance policies? Everywhere you turn you can hear about how dumb of an idea Ruckus is, the inefficiency of OneStart, the dearth of inaccessible parking and so on without end. With any problem a student might encounter on the campus, the nebulous entity that is "the University" is a frequent target for blame. If one were to judge from the amount of complaints heard around campus, it might be reasonably surmised that a large community of students must be actively protesting University policies. Oh, wait. That would assume the University wasn't brimming with fractious, apathetic egoists.\nCurrently at Washington, D.C.'s Gallaudet University, the world's only university for the Deaf, there is an all-out student revolt the likes of which hasn't been seen since the '60s. Students are barring the entrances to campus with their bodies, intent on completely disrupting the flow of academia. The revolt thus far has resulted in more than 133 arrests and the postponement of homecoming activities. Believe it or not, they're not angry about the war or Darfur or sweatshop labor but, instead, are protesting a lack of student voice in their university's presidential search. They care so profoundly about procuring a president who will best represent their needs that they are risking their liberty and education to get heard. And it's working. The board that once unanimously backed Jane K. Fernandes, the candidate the students so vehemently oppose, is beginning to show signs of acquiescence. With our own presidential search lurching forward with practically no representation of key groups affected by University policies (specifically, undergraduates or Bloomington students), we should take a cue from Gallaudet and demand a greater voice for our interests.\nGallaudet should be an example to our own administration. With the mobilization of a unified, activist student body, the administration would rue the day it failed to give us a voice. A handful of people picketing at the Sample Gates is a bit annoying. Thirty-eight thousand people marching angrily on Franklin Hall would render the big business of academia entirely impotent for as long as it took for our needs to be addressed. However, it would not require such an extreme effort for our voices to be heard -- 1,000 people in Dunn Meadow would make those at the top sit up and take notice, assuming we ever got our act together. The administration must allow Gallaudet to be a gentle reminder that it is the student body that is in the majority, that our fees make up the largest portion of IU's revenue and that we are at the core of this institution's purpose -- therefore we deserve to have a larger say in the determination of its future.