Potential of academic orgs eclipsed by student apathy

By: Saad Rizvi

Posted: 4/28/09

According to U.S. News & World Report's recent rankings, at least a couple of dozen state universities are ranked higher than UConn. It should come as a surprise because Connecticut is the richest state in the richest country in the world, which shows that the financial concerns (until recently) and dedicated faculty are not guarantees of rigorous standards. The only thing left out of the picture is a dedicated student body. Indeed, UConn's main problem is its apathetic students who are "too cool" to participate in student clubs or contribute to the intellectual burgeoning of the UConn Community.

The lack of student participation in the University's general affairs can be seen from the fact that only 25 percent of the student body participated in the Undergraduate Student Government elections, whereas apparently twice the number of students partied during the Spring Weekend. Another measure of the student body's aggregate intellect level is the people running to represent it. On one hand, we had a human rights activist, Jason Ortiz, who promised lower punishment for marijuana even though it was theoretically impossible under current state law. On the other hand, we have USG president-elect, Tom Haggerty, who did a terrible job running Freshman Council and does not show the maturity required for a president.

In fact, none of the presidential candidates had anything substantial in their agenda toward improving the intellectual experience at UConn like committing to bringing high-profile speakers or providing incentives to students for organizing student conferences. Just like USG, many other student-run organizations are also facing a dearth of student participation.

Perhaps it is not accurate to say that all student organizations are lacking participation; organizations like fraternities, sororities and club sports are bustling with members, even though they charge fees to their members. However, smaller organizations related to politics or anything without partying or socializing are struggling to attract members.

The general UConn populace does not realize the importance of these academic-related clubs. These student organizations, which host numerous speakers and provide a sneak-peek into the future careers of students; sometimes, these organizations even provide networking opportunities for future jobs. Most importantly, these organizations provide a venue of new potential friends who can contribute positively to one's life without getting drunk. Yet students fail to realize the potential of the student organizations.

The general indifference toward scholarly organizations is also shown in the previous funding trends from USG, wherein club sports get a large chunk of the funding and other student organizations, those committed to raising awareness or improving professional capabilities, receive less funding, if any at all. Some would argue that Haggerty defeated Ortiz because of the latter candidate's outspoken attitude against the sports clubs.

It is very doubtful that UConn will ever reach the intellectual level where the students will produce anything similar to Free Speech Movement or Students for Democratic Society. However, does UConn have the potential to do it? Most certainly. UConn has to stop taking pride in the fact that it is the highest-ranking public university in New England; we are a big fish in a small pond, with no legitimate competition from other New England universities. Instead, UConn should step up its game and bring itself on par with better public institutions like University of California-Berkeley or University of Michigan. We have the potential to do it.