Dear Editor(s), Let me get this straight–Paul Jenkins has pledged his undying allegiance to the True 2 slate because he feels it “will effectively represent the real needs of the students at Boston University.” This slate will be “True 2” the real needs of BU students by bringing in “fresh, new ideas” to the Student Union. How will they do this? “By picking up where [the current slate] has left off,” says Jenkins. True 2 will undertake the “awesome task” of “not [strewing] their platform with major projects,” therefore being able to devote more time to “their campaign to create a more united and prideful campus at BU.” This simply staggering task (but not a major project, of course) will be two-fold: first, these hardworking and self-sacrificing slate-members will actually take the responsibility of recruiting and retaining minority students away from the administration and do it themselves! Wow, so next time I’m strolling through the streets of Caucasia (aka Comm Ave) and wondering who’s to blame, I can ignore the little voice in my head that suspects the administration of racism and blame it all on student apathy instead! Thanks, True 2! Ok, so maybe True 2 won’t take over that responsibility… after all, they don’t want major projects. But I just can’t see how else they will accomplish that goal without devoting a tremendous effort to changing how the admissions process at BU works. Simple student lobbying will not change a mindset that has wrongly prevailed for such a long time. Enhancing the diversity of our campus is a long-term project that needs wide-scale organizing over an extended period of time, and since True 2 is against a rape crisis center because, as Jenkins noted, it “would require much more planning time than that which the Student Union can give in a year,” they most certainly won’t be up to this task either. The second part of True 2’s non-major project will be simple: Give frats and sororities more money! These obviously buzzing centers of campus life (judging from the amount of layers on the frat rock) will unite the student body in one big glorious Bacchanalian orgy of alcohol and Doric columns… or one after every sporting event. “True 2’s plan to work for increased funding for Greek life on campus” is admittedly sympathetic because of its naive and/or idealistic ignorance of that fact that Greek life was kicked OFF campus. Maybe True 2 should work towards giving MIT’s frats some money. Regardless, True 2 feels that student pride and spirit revolves around school athletics and Greek life. Perhaps this would be true if we actually had either of the two; but we don’t, so it isn’t. The students currently enrolled at BU chose to come here despite the lack of a large athletics program or Greek life option. If True 2 were truly concerned with student spirit and pride, they would recognize that hockey is the lifeblood of a BU sports fan, and that most students here are quite happy with hitting up Beta Theta Pi and the other MIT frats on the weekends. Instead of this “mature, appropriate” function of logic, however, True 2 fails to recognize what BU kids really want: Cable TV! Mr. Jenkins demonstrates the ability of True 2 to “represent the real needs of the students at Boston University” by observing that “the cable debate has risen to an absurd level of importance over the past few months.” I think its safe to assume that the office of Student Liason is not in Mr. Jenkins’ future. Maybe True 2 hopes that we’ll all be too drunk (in a “fun and safe way”) to notice the lack of cable channels on the TVs in our brand-new, on campus frat houses. For my undergraduate student fee, I’d like to see a more revolutionary slate in office, one that is not afraid to take on difficult issues and challenges. And judging from True 2’s competition, it seems that my wishes have come true. My vote will most certainly not be cast for True 2… unless, of course, they find a backup dancer for next season. Female this time.
Sincerely,
Richard Saunders CAS ’03 617-356-5582
PS – thanks to Paul Jenkins for his oh-so-quotable letter.
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