It would not be a stretch to say President Michael Crow is the least popular man on this campus.
Last fall, shirts involving a certain explicit F-word and a graphic of a crow sold by the hundreds.
The Facebook.com group “Students Against the Bad Policies of Michael Crow” has 94 members.
More formidable is the Facebook group “Michael Crow is destroying ASU one tradition at a time,” claiming 869 members.
But when it came time for Wednesday’s town hall meeting with President Crow, a forum in the Turquoise Room of Tempe Campus’ Memorial Union hosted by Undergraduate Student Government and the President’s Office in order to give all students a chance to voice concerns directly to Crow, the number of willing Mikey-bashers dwindled to about 100 students.
Where was that angry mob with pitchforks — which are, of course, easily obtained on this campus, so there are no excuses on that one — and burning effigies confronting the president on his destroying of ASU? Where were those students who have defamed the administration when they finally had a prime chance to actually have their questions answered face-to-face in a cordial and genuine way by its chief executive?
We can assure you they were not on the second floor of the MU. As we looked around the room, we recognized the faces of active campus groups such as Barrett Honors College Council, Leadership Scholarship Program, LGBTQ Coalition, Interfraternity Council and numerous student government leaders, not to mention a small handful of State Press staff. It seemed the majority of students in the Turquoise Room were more or less required to be there.
Yet organizers seemed pleased. Crow even noted during the town hall that it was “a fantastic turnout.”
Sure, in context, it was. Historically, student events in conjunction with the President’s Office have not been better attended than this meeting. In that sense, it is a good turnout. But at an event that was solidly promoted on ASU’s student-oriented Web sites, is this really what we should be striving for?
If there’s as much discontent amongst the student body about the goings-on within their university, how is this event not held in a large venue and expected to be standing-room only?
It seems events offering giveaways like free pizza or, say, mud wrestling, are the only ones that appeal to students in our generation. And, as much as we love free pizza and mud wrestling, that embarrasses us.
One week ago, the opening of a Chipotle restaurant on Mill Avenue drew thousands of students willing to wait in a line that wrapped down the street for over an hour just to get a free burrito.
Where are ASU students’ priorities? Is their time best spent on a free burrito or on the paramount issues involving the future of their educational institution?
Sadly, we now know the answer — as the student body ate up filling burritos, their apathy left our faith in our peers’ activism and care for their education feeling awfully empty.
