Tuesday’s session of Chats with the Chancellor solidified an already evident problem on campus — University students are incredibly apathetic toward the budget cut crisis.
The stage was set for a showdown with Chancellor Michael Martin on Tuesday. But instead of posing questions about the future of our dying University, students decided to bombard him with questions about parking.
This recent exhibition of passivity is not surprising, unfortunately.
We live in a society not concerned with the future, unless immediate effects are felt — as is the case with our current parking dilemma.
About 70 percent of the questions fielded by Martin were from students concerned with where they could store their automobiles during class and football games. What these students failed to realize is there will be no more class or football games to attend if we don’t survive this budget crisis.
And what has been the primary reaction from students toward the University declaring exigency, the educational equivalent of bankruptcy?
Pure apathy, evidenced by the lack of protests, disturbances or even a single sit-in.
And the reasons for this — other than the Millennial generation’s tendency to care more about the primetime TV schedule  — are beyond me.
The simple answer: We’re not well informed enough of the budget cuts crisis. It has been watered down, abstracted and published in such a way that the eventual outcome of this debacle is shrouded in mystery.
Were we to receive even a detailed list of projections, they would still be only projections. Students and professors apparently need concrete information to take action, not more projections shielded in ambiguity.
Gaining knowledge of which programs and professors being axed would surely stir a little emotion, evidenced by the recent cuts within the foreign language department.
The update released Wednesday reveals shocking numbers of cuts in Level Three of the FY12 Proposed Cuts. Apparently we can expect the elimination of seven out of 14 colleges and the loss of 50 degree programs and 700 University employees.
But even with these dire numbers, we still don’t know that much.
So while we have the right to protest, knowing what to protest against has become impossible. Of course we’re apathetic — we don’t quite know what to be incensed about.
What we can do, however, is demand full transparency from our administrators. No more guesses. No more shrouding the plans of program elimination.
If you’re employed as a professor, then stand up for your colleagues — you could be next.
If you’re a student, then demand to know if your degree program will still be offered at your projected graduation date.
And if you are as irritated as I am about the confidentiality and ambiguity of what is in store for our future, then take some advice from Howard Beale, main character of the movie “Network,”
“I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a human being, goddamn it! My life has value!’ So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!'”
Andrew Robertson is a 23-year-old English writing and culture senior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_Arobertson.
 
 
 
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Contact Andrew Robertson at [email protected]