Final Column SAY WHAT

BY ELIZABETH BASTIAN, Perspectives Editor

Well, the end of the school year has finally arrived, HALLELUJAH! Anyone who does not think that the best part of college is over four full months of summer is obviously in denial.

There is a lot I learned this year, not only about myself, but about the school and students in general.

I joined The Michigan Journal’s staff because I missed being part of a publication, something that I was heavily involved in during high school. The past eight months have been frustrating at times, and it is certainly not a light work load to take on. But I would not change it for the world. I missed the cathartic act of writing. I missed seeing my name in print and feeling like I am (hopefully) broadening others’ perspectives about certain topics.

Not only did cranking out at least one article a week help me organize my thoughts when it came to papers and projects, but it personally forced me to keep up-to-date on current events. This knowledge about global happenings is, sadly, something I feel is severely lacking from several members of our student body. I often felt as though my weekly “Word of Mouth” questions had to be concerned with sports or tabloid reports in order to get a decent amount of satisfactory responses. And while there is nothing wrong with that once in a while, it was extremely disappointing to have to limit the questions I could ask. When all of the students polled in the first week of November about their planned voting practices had no idea when Election Day was, something is not right.

As the Opinions Editor, I have read, edited, and published countless articles about the quality of student life at U-M Dearborn, written by various parties over the past year. Often times, the organizations who so often congregate or have offices in the University Center were compared to high school cliques, with just as much accompanying drama. As I said before, one of the reasons I applied to the Journal was to replace something I missed in high school. However, I know for a fact that a major deterrent of other students participating is the “high school-ness” of the University Sponsored Organizations (USOs), the Greeks, and even some of the Registered Student Organizations (RSOs). I am not going to comment on whose fault this is, on what can be done, etc.

There have already been, as I said, several articles discussing this. What disturbs me is the lack of cooperation between every part of student orgs, from the administration to the students themselves. I am not advocating for everyone on the second floor of the UC to drop everything, grab some guitars, and sing Kumbaya while holding hands around The Rock. But I feel that the involvement rates would skyrocket if the environment was more collaborative.

Several of those who have spent a short stint within the realm of the student organizations have become embittered to the student body, but I have not. I have faith. It’s just going to take more elbow grease on everyone’s part.

On that note, I would genuinely like to thank you, all of you, for your inspiration, your support, and your compliments. Truly. They meant so much.

I sincerely hope that all of you enjoy your summer as much as I know I am going to enjoy mine. Have a wonderful break, and I hope you will all join me again next year.