Try exchanging apathy for involvement

If you’ve paid much attention lately, you know the state of Mississippi is barely staying afloat in treacherous fiscal waters. Many on this campus find their permanent home in the state, but the rest live here at least temporarily – making all of us subject in some way to the state’s financial woes.

So our question is: why does it seem the student body doesn’t care about the impending budget cuts, specifically to our university?

We’re sure complaints have been flying around classrooms, barrooms and dorm rooms since the budgetary problems became apparent last year. But complaining to your friends doesn’t do much, now does it? For it is actions which count, not complaints. And the general lack of action on this campus is from which we draw our conclusion that nobody cares.

No USM students seemed to care about the rally for education in Jackson last week, even after we announced the event, and sold a half-page advertisement announcing it again.

This is a microcosm of a broader problem we find within our generation. In general, those sitting around you as you read these words will be quick to gripe, piss and moan about anything rubbing them the wrong way, but extraordinarily passive when it comes time to actually do something about it. While making a big noise to peers and pals, venting frustrations until blue in the face to everyone who can’t do anything about them, we seem to forget to bug those in charge. We seem to roll over and let opportunities to change the world around us pass us by.

We seem to not care.

And now it’s official. Tuition is rising next year to fill the hole left in the state university system’s budget.

So we should do something about it.

On our Web site, we’ve compiled a list of legislators and people of power for you to opine to, hopefully to your desired effect. Use it. Take full advantage of this information.

We can’t say all the student body has been this passive, though. Last semester, a group, albeit a small group, stood in front of the administration building to protest the planned elimination of the economics department. Remember the front page of Tuesday’s paper?  It contained news about a student’s attempt to offer a cheaper alternative to the Blackboard system. Even though we’ve gotten word that the administration shot down his proposal, he at least tried, right?

Some students even publish information about budget cuts so the student body can be informed and up-to-date on the current state of affairs.

So get active. Although it is the opinion of this editorial board that tuition hikes are far preferable to slashing the quality of education at USM and the rest of the state’s universities, we are but an insignificant percentage of students affected by this at Southern Miss. The rest of you need to chime in.

You never know, you might just make a difference.