Everyone else has put in his two cents on Ladnergate, so I suppose that I might as well do the same. Blame it on the uninteresting news cycle.
Winston Churchill - and a lot of others since - once said, "Show me a young conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains." Sometimes I feel like AU students wear their hearts on their sleeves. Too bad that sometimes we also wear our lack of brains on our foreheads. My only response can be this: Grow up.
Sometimes I think that AU students have their priorities a little mixed up. Perhaps the cause is this notion that AU should be the premiere global university. Remember the ridiculous debate over whether Mary Graydon should house a Starbuck's or a Pura Vida that only sells 100% shade-grown coffee - whatever that is - and that actually pays South American coffee growers more than their coffee beans are worth? Let us hear it for being socially responsible. Never mind that most AU students - in a moment of clarity - did not even want another coffee shop on campus, we decided to do our small part to add to the nation's trade deficits.
Ah, the price of feeling enlightened.
When did AU students ever organize themselves last year on issues that directly affected them? Well, there was that time that the administration proposed eliminating Fall Break and extending Thanksgiving Break. AU students protested and the administration relented. Now for those of you who either are rich or live on the East Coast, getting back to the West Coast is neither easy, quick nor cheap. I have a hard enough time just making it back to Cincinnati. No wonder that a lot of non-East Coasters spend their Fall Break on campus.
Translation: A coffee grower gets paid extra for bad coffee but some us have to waste a perfectly good Fall Break only to have to wait an extra four days before we can leave for Winter Break. Good ol' global thinking.
But maybe I am being unfair to the protesting class at AU. A few weeks ago, a mob gathered in front of Mary Graydon, ranted and raved for a little while and then stormed the Bastille that was the Butler Board Room. Following this little revolution of sorts, the Board of Trustees voted to guillotine President Ladner, a man who abused his expense accounts to pay for family functions and presents, personal vacations, a French chef, lots of alcohol and probably a bunch of other things that I have little interest in cataloguing. Bravo, protestors! Sic semper tyrannus! Ra, ra, ra!
Now let me ask you this: Is anything going to change now that Dr. Ladner is gone? Will tuition decrease? How about room and board? Will there be more scholarship money to go around? Probably not. We just get to pat ourselves on the back and feel enlightened again. I am therefore left to wonder why AU students are only just starting to saddle the Board with its fair share of the blame. Maybe Dr. Ladner was abusing his office, but the Board was asleep at the wheel. It is too bad that the clamor for greater student representation on the Board did not reach this pitch a long time ago.
As I said, I sometimes feel that AU students have their priorities a little mixed up. Maybe it is just the NASCAR Dad in me, but if you are that concerned about what is going on in countries hundreds if not thousands of miles away; if you are that concerned about with is going on at the national level; or if you are that concerned about how much of your money your college president spent on alcohol; then should you not be at least that concerned about what is going on in your own backyard?
Although we may not be voting for president or even members of Congress, this Tuesday is Election Day. For those of you who think that AU should be able to bar military recruiters from campus and still receive federal funds, do you know whether there are gay marriage initiatives on the ballots in your states? For those of you who support a woman's right to choose, do you know whether there are parental notification initiatives on the ballots in your state? For those of you who think that your high school did a halfway decent job preparing you for college, do you know whether there are school board races on the ballots in your towns?
Which brings me to my next question: Do you know where your absentee ballot is?
Jonathan D. McPike is a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences and The Eagle's independent columnist.
