Students, throw your apathy to the wayside and speak out

JOE CONGLETON
DM Columnist

Welcome to Ole Miss where everyone speaks!"

This proclamation gives us false hopes that we are attending a university where the students are outspoken, where the students care about one another, yet, nothing could be further from the truth. Ole Miss has a long history of apathy, a long history of no one caring about anything that might or might not affect them. It trickles down from the administration to physical plant to the students, who just sit back and accept everything that happens to them.

Every year that I've attended Ole Miss, costs have gone up, even though the College Board, at one point, promised us, that tuition wouldn't be raised again for many years. Well, to make a long story short, it did. Those of us who are out-of-state students are now forced to pay quite a bit more than ever before. Is this acceptable? Is it the product of inflation, or is it the product of greedy old men sitting in a room popping their knuckles?

What about visitation? I'm sure that most of you out there have, at one time, been angry with the fact that you cannot bring a guest, into the dorm after midnight on weekdays or two a.m. on weekends. And, for once in my life, I'm not going to pin the problem on student housing. I'm going to pin the problem on student apathy.

Ole Miss visitation polices (actually, all visitation policies) are set according to Mississippi state law. Law is an annoying thing, and this one, as stupid as it is, is even more annoying. So, would you, as students, like it changed?

Most of us would. Some of us have even moved off-campus because of stupid rules such as this one. The main problem is that's all we do: move off-campus.

Sure, that solves some of our problems, but what about the number of students who still have to deal with ignorant rules? They don't benefit at all from our moving off campus. But, if students would band together, the college board would listen. If we would come together, and refuse to budge in our beliefs, then we would be listened to.

But that's an even larger problem. Ole Miss students won't band together for any cause, big or small. When Ole Miss students come together for a cause, they fear that they'll be severed from the norm, and, most likely, they will. So we continue to accept and obey, just like the good little children the College Board wishes us to be. We speak when spoken to, stay quiet and obey.

College students have a long history of being proactive, of having sit down protests, of having demonstrations in common areas, of cutting classes until something is done. They, in many places, have no fear of being arrested for their beliefs. They simply don't care about the consequences of their actions. They go out on their proverbial limbs for causes they believe in.

We are the future leaders of America. But, if we are to be leaders, we must overcome our apathy. We must care about what's being done to us, and we must do something about it. Being lazy accomplishes nothing. We are a good portion of the voting community, and our leaders need to know that. Let's let them know.

If we don't, we'll be forced back into the dark ages, along with the older generation. After all, what great leader accomplished anything by simply being comfortable where he or she was?

Welcome to Ole Miss where everyone's always quiet.