Has everyone lost sight of what's truly important?

JENELLE PETRINCHUK STAFF

After working at a students’ newspaper for the past year, my eyes have been opened to a world that the majority of students at the U of M will probably never truly see: that of university politics. What interests me most is the lack of attention those involved in such a community pay to the actual university experience and mindsets of the majority of students at the U of M.

When it comes to post-secondary education, all anyone ever seems to hear about is tuition, government funding and reputation. I know it has been drilled into my mind over the past several months.

Our university administrators, student and political leaders need to start asking themselves the all-powerful question of whether or not this strong-hold focus on tuition and money is the most important thing to all (or even most) university students. Believe it or not, there is a whole world out there. Have we totally forgotten about the world of classes, exams, and earning a degree?

University is about learning and grasping life experiences. As students, we have all chosen our area of study that we are passionate about, proving that not everyone has the same one-track mind as those who feel money is the be-all and end-all of today’s problems. We need to be surrounded by leaders who encourage us to become what we have set out to become and who inspire us to be all that we can be.

We need to be able to see the bigger picture: we all came here for a reason and it was not to complain about the state of the university, or for that matter, the cost of tuition. Personally, I have a huge debt, but would rather not focus my entire university-self on just the funding aspect of it. Government money must be attributed to all walks of life; the species of the student is not the sole inhabitant of this planet. Students need to be engaged beyond protests in front of the legislature and proclamations that the U of M really doesn’t deserve the bottom spot in Maclean’s rankings. University life is so much more.

Far from a significant number of the nearly 30,000 students at the U of M, only select groups on campus are actually and really involved in university politics. Just look at the seven per cent voter turnout for the last UMSU election. I’m pointing my finger at the troublesome triad of UMSU, the administration and the government.

Nobody is listening to the students anymore, but that is because they don’t speak out. I don’t blame them. It’s hard. The voices of students has been co-opted by a small, yet vocal minority that strongly believes tuition is too high and has the students’ union and CFS to back them up.

At a recent presidential search committee meeting, aimed at replacing Emöke Szathmáry when she leaves next year, it was mentioned by a student that maybe the new president should be one that a student could sit down and have a beer with. Maybe that is a quality we should be looking for. It was also mentioned (numerous times) that back in the ’60s and ’70s the university administration would participate in touch-football games with the students.

Perhaps we should get that administration geared up for a game of touch-football this summer. Or at least get them training for the fall. It might sound stupid that having fun should be a bigger priority than pushing for lower tuition and more government funding but let’s take a poll and find out how many of our very own students would prefer it.

Either way, that students are disengaged is currently an obvious concern, and the administration, UMSU and anybody else involved in influencing U of M students should work together to help create a university experience that is truly engaging.