Like most Boston University students, I rarely raise my voice anymore in the effort to make life better on campus. I’ve given up. The Boston University administration, it feels, has won the war against students and I won’t see any significant changes in my time on Commonwealth Avenue.

Yet while I was beginning to feel quite settled in my apathy, I was jolted out of it by Christina Crapanzano’s article praising Student Union President Jon Marker’s efforts at correcting the many issues that face BU students. I realized in her first two paragraphs that the sad and hopeless state of student concerns at BU wasn’t completely the fault of the administration. It is also, and perhaps more so, the fault of a student government that borders on complete and utter failure to voice the opinions of the student body. The article in question praised Marker as he “forges” relations between the students and the administration. Forges? Jon Marker has been president for two of my three years at Boston University, and in two years he is still in the “forging” stage? To say the least I am appalled at the lack of progress.

Apparently, President Marker was encouraged by his astounding ability to be able to have a meeting with “the entire e-board, the president and the deans” – the first time, he claims, they all were able to make the time to get together for a powwow. Amazingly, a sentence that was meant by the writer to serve as praise for Marker’s work had me laughing out loud at the incompetence of our student government. Essentially, I am being told that in almost two years of work, Jon Marker has just now been able to meet with all of the important people required to make a difference in student life. Great. We’re even more doomed than I thought. Sure we’ve seen cable finally arrive on campus – a process that began long before Marker’s time, and which he has no problem taking credit for. But I guess I am bound to live on campus for four years without ever seeing progress in student affairs, most noticeably and egregiously in the case of the Guest Policy, an outdated dinosaur of a policy, both for BU students and their visitors, that essentially limits the friendships and relationships we are able to “forge” while in college, under the guise of increasing security (which any student can tell you it doesn’t).

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t meant to be a character attack on Jon Marker. While I wasn’t one of the masses who thought that the ability to tape together a giant pinwheel was surely the sign of a strong and determined leader, I can understand why he was elected – the complete apathy of the student body. What? Apathy at BU!? Surely I must be kidding, after all Boston University, indeed the city of Boston itself, has held true to its past of reform and activism on many fronts, hasn’t it? Well to a certain degree, yes it has. Tara Stroll’s devil’s advocate pieces receive several letters in response before she’s even thought of her topic. But on a campus level, on the issues that most concern BU students, the response is frequently no response.

We’re all eager to make sure our thoughts are heard on the war on terror, on abortion and on gay rights – as if any of the opinions reached on Commonwealth Avenue will settle those arguments. But when it comes right down to it, none of us step forward to do anything about the oppressive and outdated Boston University administration. We’re all at fault. It’s sad to know that past candidates who could have brought change and some real effort, perhaps “forging” important meetings much earlier in their terms, were ignored by voters who thought that a pinwheel was cool. In the end we’ve only decreased our chances of seeing the benefit of our student government votes, while we still attend college. Is it too much to ask at such a “liberal” campus to change that trend? I hope not.