Our university is a great place to receive an education. Many of the faculty members are fantastic and interesting classes are offered every semester to initiate forums of discussion and whet the student appetite for knowledge.
Such perceptible creatures as ourselves buzz around the ETSU campus with knapsacks full of books and pen and paper in hand.
I have but one question. As students, are we oftentimes apathetic to education?
I love to see students become involved, either as a part of student organizations on campus or by speaking their minds about their opinions and asking as many questions as possible.
I have to commend my fellow ET writer, Josh McKinney, for his piece on discovering the arts on campus for the first time. One could certainly tell that he went through a real learning experience.
The Carroll Reece museum had been there during his entire college career. All he had to do was have a look, instead of merely saying “Who cares about art?”
Like most individuals, college students learn from their surroundings and experiences on a constant basis. Believe it or not, there are students out there who care about their education and want to get their money’s worth. To that end, there are a plethora of events on campus that help you get that money’s worth. All of us that are a part of student organizations can’t wait to bring those events to you so that your college experience is that much more complete.
I am consistently blown away every time I walk away from a production put on by our theater department.
I love when the harmonious clanging sound of instruments wafts into the art building on a quiet and breezy afternoon. I don’t know much about music, but the love and dedication it requires is crystal clear to me.
The group formerly known as University Productions, now Buctainment, has brought many interesting speakers and events to our campus.
Members of the Greek community and various other student groups bring personality to ETSU with exciting events and speakers.
Many don’t know it, but there are over 150 registered student organizations on campus that work hard to make everyones college experiences more fulfilling. Sometimes they succeed and other times they don’t.
A couple of years ago, when two former members of the cast of the Real World came to speak at ETSU, I had dinner with them before their presentation to observe their behavior so I could write about it later. I then attended the event in the D.P. Culp Center Auditorium for the same reason.
Something surprised me.
It wasn’t the way in which Mike described “hooking up” with other members of the cast in their posh Real World crib or the way that Coral made fun of our southern accents. I was surprised at the sheer amount of students that attended the event. There were more people at that one event than I had seen in my entire time at ETSU or at any other event I had been to.
Of course, since then, Ghandi’s grandson delivered a lecture to a packed house in the Culp Center ballroom which was, I’ll have to say, a memorable event to say the least.
But why did students pack the stands for two individuals who endlessly partied, “hooked up,” argued with roommates, wore swanky clothes and derived some sort of deep philosophical meaning out of it all in a confessional booth?
What did the hundreds of those in attendance that night really learn from seeing Mike and Coral speak?
Did the attendence at the event make some sort of comment about the mindset of many students?
I think that if someone asked me, I would say that I came away from the talk having learned … wait a minute … I don’t think I learned anything.
It seemed apparent to me what ETSU students tend to pack the stands for.
A couple of months before Mike and Coral’s visit, Jean Robert-Cadet, founder of the Restavec foundation spoke of his “real world” experiences of life as a child-slave in Haiti and of his journey to become a college professor in the United States.
I was honored to have had dinner with him at the same place that I observed the cast members of the MTV show. Only this time I actually learned things from Cadet, that I have yet to forget.
His aim was to educate others about slavery in the modern world through remembering his own painfully vivid childhood memories. This was a real learning experience, and I am glad that being a student here at ETSU gave me the opportunity to have had it.
This article is littered with questions because, naturally, I’m a little confused. As president of the Student Painting and Drawing Association, I was both shocked and dismayed that my student organization received zero funding to bring a contemporary painter to our campus to lecture and critique student work.
Not even one penny.
As many already know, the system of funding known as 606, exists to serve the very students who contribute money to it every semester which really comes out of their own pockets.
Every student at this university pays “activity fees” which are then used to fund various on- and off-campus events. Many times the events greatly enrich individual students as well as the student body as a whole.
When the time came to meet with the 606 committee, several members from our group presented information about the artist, Lisa Sanditz, and mentioned various painting publications she was featured in, the New York and Belgian galleries representing her work, her Master’s degree from the prestigious Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and various other things.
The article written about the funding session said that our group “has yet to recieve any information beyond the name of the artist and is working under short notice.”
The first part of that statement was false and the latter true. The very first deadline for 606 was about a week and a half into the semester making it a little short notice for us. So, we decided to ask for a low amount to pay Sanditz. She was already slated to come to our campus on the dates provided accompanying her partner, photographer Tim Davis who was coming to campus and sponsored by the Student Photography Association.
Sanditz reccieved $470 for her, and $30 for advertising purposes.
As far as 606 funding goes, another group also working under short notice recieved an exceptional benefit. The sum, requiring two-thirds of the Senate vote, was $2,500.
And, it didn’t stop there. A whopping $2,726 in funding was obtained for one group and a even more staggering $4,001 exceptional benefit was given to another group to bring Survivor winner Tina Wesson to campus to talk about the impact the TV show has had on her life.
The amount was disputed by the chair of the committee, but others disagreed.
“To have life on this campus, it’s not too much to ask for something like this,” said SGA president Ethan Flynn.
This is where I get confused. Since when did reality television become a part of academia?
To tell you the truth I can’t remember a thing about the winner of the first, let alone the last, Survivor and definitely not the names of the cast members or how the show may have impacted their lives. I do however remember hearing how Jean Robert Cadet’s Restavec foundation has impacted the lives of others, mine included.
I remember the past artists and critics that my organization has brought to campus and how thrilled students were to hear them speak of things of substance – things that you can learn from art, philosophy and stories of struggle.
I remember viewing with wide eyes the large, colorful prints of 2004 Whitney biennial photographer Alec Soth when he lectured here last semester.All of these visitors were a result of the Student Photography Association’s goal to teach the students of ETSU something.
I want to learn something. I mean really learn something.
Jeers to the SGA’s 606 committee for disregarding an educational on-campus event. After all, what are we really here for?
We are here to be educated.

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