Officially apathetic

And the six paragraph comment had a rather counter-intuitive effect didn't it? Instead of diminishing the editorial it is instead bringing more attention to it and allowing more people to focus more on it. And they are all reaching similar conclusions because they are the students being directly affected by the ASU's actions -- whether slow, successful, unsuccessful, or entirely lacking altogether.

And although we all know life is complicated, remember that these are people that chose to run for such positions, whether to beef up their resumes or applications and some even get a little pay or some incentive for their positions.

Life is complicated, the whole world is complicated, but that is the price of living. And these inherent complications do not change the fact that responsibilities -- especially chosen responsibilities -- must be completed and are of the utmost priority, they cannot just be sweeped under a rug by some general comment.

The ASU, as a public organization serving students have many responsibilities, but many of these responsibilities have not been met.

Yes, life is complicated, and failure to meet life's responsibilities, particularly those that you have chosen, only makes it that much more complicated.

C'est la vie.

The Advocate Editorial Board isn't completely wrong, but as usual they haven't gotten it quite right. It is entirely true that the ASU hasn't had many successful events for the last several years; in fact, I couldn't count the number of successful events in recent years on both hands. However, I have seen an overworked and understaffed group of student volunteers do amazing things to make sure an event is successful. I've also seen the same group fiddle away while deadlines pass and events fall by the wayside.

There is a secret that every student knows: it can be really tough to be a student. It can be even tougher when you have a job, or a kid, or some other responsibility. It can be very hard indeed. The fact that Contra Costa is a commuter college means that definately we have a lot of students that just aren't interested in participating in campus-life when real-life takes up enough of their precious time. On the other hand, there are plenty of students that have no responsibilities outside of school that simply don't want to spend more time on campus than they have to. In case The Advocate Editorial Board was unaware, the world is a very different place today than it was forty and fifty years ago in the 60's and 70's. To use a potentially inflammatory example: the familiar scent of ganja on our campus isn't coming from hippie activists smoking joints but young punks smoking blunts.

An apathetic student body doesn't serve to inspire an active ASU. An apathetic ASU doesn't serve to inspire an active student body. A foolish group of newspaper editors might look at that situation and be reminded of an old philosophical question regarding egg-laying farm creatures and the eggs that they lay but a wise group of newspaper editors might have asked some questions before putting pen to paper on an editorial. Is the fact that many CCC student's know that they can take a class in any department and never need to put in any effort and get an easy A going to affect their school pride or their motivation to participate in campus-life? Yes. Are the bureacratic administrators and the post-secondary politics of staff and faculty inhibiting the ASU? Yes. Are there more questions that could be asked? Yes. Is the whole situation complicated? Yes.

President Hope's comment is not at all commendable, but it is understandable. If I was in Jeanelle's shoes I'd be tired and bitter and ready to leave the ASU too.