In need of a true voice in campus affairs
Bill Rinner
sophomore
There's something rotten on the campus of Notre Dame. Festering beneath the surface of the University's ideal exterior is a force more frightening than anyone realizes. For years, Notre Dame has given us fleeting gifts of bread and circuses while denying us what is far from our grasp: a voice.
Father Poorman's naïve proposal to change the alcohol policy on the campus is merely a symptom of a terrible plague which afflicts the University. Though his proposal may seem to be madness, there is slight method to his decision. However, we should not overexert ourselves with this one small battle and forget that we have a greater conflict right beneath our eyes. The student's voice was largely absent from the proposal and soon enforcement of the new policy, and Father Poorman knows it.
But is he the one to blame? Does not the Board of Trustees, already known to perpetuate its own archaic "vision" for Notre Dame, bear the bulk of the responsibility for treating us as inferiors? I certainly got this sense when I scanned the hallway wall at the Morris Inn, splattered with portraits of current trustees. I could almost see the thought, "our money makes you possible," emanating from their eyes.
At some point, they forgot that our annual tuition should cover more than the cost of attending classes and eating quarter dogs. The ability to make a change as we see fit is a modest proposal to say the least, but the trustees would rather eat their own children than grant it from their own benevolence.
Alas, we are left with the question: What can we do to assert our voice and pull the curtain back from the eyes of those blinded by the notion that Notre Dame is a picturesque institution? Robert Pazornik's idea for a coalition to "Change ND" is a step in the right direction, but we need so much more. We need to frighten the trustees with more than a petition not to donate money in the future. After all, how many will succumb and donate money to obtain football tickets if we ever return to the status of a football powerhouse?
I challenge everyone who realizes that the call to "Change ND" should really be "Save ND" to act on this pressing issue. Once we pull back the curtain and discover the source of our discontent, we must develop a true student voice.
Bill Rinner
sophomore
Siegfried Hall
Mar. 25, 2002
All Viewpoint Stories for Tuesday, March 26, 2002
