Within the span of 67 instructional days, the Boston University campus has seen many things, from the citywide celebration of a Red Sox World Series win — complete with victory parade and a Taco Bell appearance from a Sox outfielder — to the shock of a reported assault in one of the dorms almost every student can claim to have a connection with. Pedestrian-vehicle accidents and administrative changes have registered on most students’ radars, and reports of assault and robbery have, with luck, encouraged students to think twice about their own safety and that of their peers. At the end of this semester, this page can only encourage a thoughtful assessment of every student’s priorities and hope that each student finds a cause he or she is passionate about.
Next semester, we students should continue to engage ourselves in the activities that are important to us. Students alarmed by increased reports of sexual assault on campus may want to consider joining one of the campus groups dedicated to promoting victim recovery and assault prevention. At the very least, everyone should continue to watch out for friends in the coming semester, with memories of recent sexual assault still in the university’s memory. The inherent dangers of living on an urban campus should not drive students to levels of undue paranoia, but precautions of reasonable protection — of going out with friends and avoiding walks alone at night — should resonate with those who care for their own safety and that of their friends.
Last summer, BU’s smallest school was cut from the university, and the entire institution, according to the prognostications of President Robert Brown, is on the verge of a radical transformation — at least insofar as the educational, physical and cultural attributes of the university are slated for dramatic change. The university has promised a replacement honors program for the University Professors Program, but the continued absence of specific details from the committee assigned to form this specialized and interdisciplinary program that will benefit a broad swath of the school population is disheartening. While careful timing and release of information to the whole school may be critical to future programs’ successes, it is still owed to the last UNI students that they understand — and have impact upon — the last vestige of a school that has fostered such enthusiastic intellectual activity at BU. Openness in gathering and disseminating information about the betterment of BU should flow freely on campus, from the president’s candid remarks on an important development to the frank remarks of the College of Arts and Sciences’ new dean, Virginia Sapiro, and the concerns of students experiencing BU at the ground level.
While BU is being changed institutionally, the on-schedule Commonwealth Avenue Improvement Project presents the possibility of a better-looking campus for BU within the academic career of some current classes. While the exact benefits of increased street-side foliage and brick square-footage are questionable, the pleasure of construction that might end on time is a relief to students and faculty who traipse the Charles River Campus.
It will not be difficult for BU students to get excited about the Sox’ home opener next semester, though it will be more challenging to motivate the student body at BU — often called apathetic, by its own members and visiting national political figures — to become invested in the outcome of the primary election that will take place in Massachusetts on Feb. 5. This date should already be marked on student calendars — or replaced by the date of a primary election date in a student’s home state and the necessary information to cast an absentee ballot. While the presidential campaign has dragged on for more than a year, the importance of real political change should not be lost because of student apathy. The promise of national change can be encouraged by an election in only a couple months — and students should decide what issues are most important to them on the national level and make civic decisions based upon this, rather than slick advertising or celebrity endorsement.
On campus, yet again this past semester, the Student Union has seen the continued absence of meaningful advocacy for student interests and groups. This ineffectiveness is owed at least in part to the leadership of the Union, but the attitude of a student body that expects much without effecting actual change is at fault. If more students are able to find a policy-changing, administration-altering niche in the university next semester and in years to come, the interests of BU will more closely align with those of students. As the presidential races hits its first major milestone, students and others will be able to show how — and for what — they care.
Next semester, if students dedicate themselves to a cause, a candidate or a campaign, much can be accomplished that cynics have brushed aside as impossible for just apathetic college students.
