Student apathy.

In the three years I’ve been attending NIU I have heard people accuse students of being apathetic many times. NIU students are supposedly only “suitcase students,” preferring to live out of their cars and only sleep on campus.

Only recently, though, have I had the chance to reflect on the situation and study it a bit. End result: Students are apathetic, all right.

Everybody sees the regular signs that indicate this apathy. The weekends see empty parking lots everywhere on campus, once the weather gets cold attendance drops off sharply for football games and the NIU campus is generally a dead place from late Friday afternoon to early Monday morning.

These things, like I said before, are commonplace. They are so a part of NIU that no one— except a columnist or two or a few freshmen—even notices them anymore.

I must confess that I had become so accustomed to the weekend exodus of student away from this place that I habitually say “have a nice weekend” to people, assuming they won’t be around for a few days.

A few things happened in the last few days, however, that shocked me back into reality. One was the demolition of the houses south of the library. The other was Halloween.

Tearing down houses might not seem like much of a happening spectacle, but just try to tell that to the NIU student body. Granted every child—and many adults— probably had the fantasy of how much fun it would be to operate a bulldozer and bash a house to little pieces.

But how does that explain the huge turnout for the event last Wednesday? There were people sitting on ledges, standing in the street, looking out of windows, even some perched in trees, all trying to get a better look at the spectacle. At one point there must have been more than 100 people watching. Are we so starved for something new and interesting that we will stand and watch for 20 minutes as a house is reduced to a pile of junk?

Apparently so.

Another indication of just what a boring place this can be happened last weekend. With Halloween upon us, an unusually large (even for NIU) number of people made plans to be somewhere else.

All right, all right. It’s true Southern Illinois University-Carbondale has a world famous Halloween bash every year and the University of Wisconsin-Madison is just more fun to be at anytime. But, is that any reason for NIU to resemble a ghost town on what should be a big party night?

It’s a shame that this campus is so devoid of social activity. Students here are just like students everywhere else. (Just read Police Beat). NIU students can be just as crazy, fun and spontaneous as any others. However, the opportunity to show this rarely presents itself.

One excuse (if there is one) for the tailgating riot says something to the effect that parties are so few and far between that students say “We better go all out while we have the chance.”

In the past, students, administrators, columnists and even some DeKalb residents have expressed regret that NIU has not developed yet some traditions of its own. In addition, all said they would like to see something—anything—get started and catch on. And hopefully that something would last.

Those ideas ranged from roping off streets for a giant block party gathering to parades and carnivals before football games.

One problem remains, however. For any of these ideas to get off the ground students are going to have to stay here once in a while so these ideas have a chance.

Everyone should remember that this is your campus. These are supposed to be the best four years of your life—the final four before having to grow up and face the real world.

What a pity they most likely will be spent looking for a good time—somewhere else.