Personal OpinionBy Marie Ory

Managing Editor

With more than 7,500 people roaming this campus on a daily basis, I find it absolutely ridiculous that only one Nicholls student and one faculty member have an active voice.

This semester, through all of the issues that The Nicholls Worth has covered, there have been only two letters submitted to the editor for publication.

I find this appalling and extremely disturbing to think that the students on the campus of Nicholls State University have no concerns or thoughts about the happenings on campus.

Do you as students not care about what goes on in the world, Louisiana or on campus? Certainly I know that there are issues that you and your friends discuss.

Being that I have been a member of The Nicholls Worth staff for three semesters now, I thought I would have seen a response to many events that have taken place throughout that period of time, however, this has not been the case.

In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, we did not receive any feedback from students. Disturbing once more. Do you all realize what happened? Certainly you had feelings about what happened and the aftermath caused, but yet, no response.

There was mold in Gouaux Hall. Sure, it is easy to complain about how you were feeling and the rancid smell that reeked throughout the building to friends, but how much more effective would it have been to hard to write down those feelings and have them heard by the whole campus community.

Currently, the University is participating in a major fundraising campaign. What are your views on the campaign and its purpose? Do you not realize that the University is in the process of raising more than $15 million?

Student tuition rates were increased by three percent. How does this affect you?

The Student Government Association holds meetings every week to decide what to do with student money, yet hardly anyone attends these gatherings. I can honestly say this, because for an entire semester I covered the senate meetings for the newspaper. The only time anyone ever showed up was if they were asking for funding. It is your money they are playing with; I think you should care what they do with it.

These are all examples of things that concern the student body, or at least should concern the student body, yet not one of you has spoken up to express your views.

Feedback is a key element to the news process, and believe me, what you say does matter.

Administrators listen when students talk: we at the newspaper listen when students talk. With out verbal communication, something happens…nothing.

I look at newspapers distributed by other universities and see double page spreads full of student feedback and student opinions it makes me sick to know that students on this campus, apparently, just do not care.

What more can we do to get feedback and to get students to open their eyes to what goes on? A lot of very important issues end up overlooked or just die off because no one cares about what happens. I encourage you to care.

Students have a huge responsibility on this campus. You may not realize it, but each student serves as a watchdog over the University. Students are the ones walking all over campus witnessing the things that go on each day, so let us know what you think. Students have the power of voice.

Be aware of what you have as a Nicholls student. There are many opportunities to make something positive happen through the power of your voice. Start to care.