On Monday, the East Tennessean ran three photographs by Travis Brown depicting broken emergency phones on campus.
Early Tuesday morning, crews were sighted working on the phones. I was excited that the problem was going to be fixed, after months of having those phones out of service. A part of me hoped that the press had played a powerful role. Now there is no problem with the emergency phones on campus. There are no more emergency phones.
There is the chance that the ET had nothing to do with the phones being remove. There is the chance that the removal of these phones (which have been out of order for several semesters) has been planned for weeks and that the photo spread on the broken phones only happened to coincide with their removal. However, I do not believe that this is the case.
While I do appreciate that someone would actually remove the phones (instead of just taping a piece of paper over them), the way that the university has chosen to deal with this is similar to the way many problems are dealt with on campus: ignore the issue or remove the source instead of addressing what’s really going on here.
Many students feel as though administrators don’t hear what the real issues on campus are and many administrators feel as though students fail to see the bigger picture on campus. Students, here for a shorter period of time, have a more immediate vision of what should happen on campus. Faculty and staff, some of whom work here for 30 or more years, have more long-term ideas about how things should be done.
Students fail in speaking to the administration and in speaking to one another about what is really going on. When problems arise there is little student organization and almost no cohesive response.
On Monday night the Ella Baker Tour came to campus to help facilitate a discussion about civil rights issues on campus and nationwide.
Theresa El-Amin and Guy and Candie Carawan visited our campus and very few people showed up to welcome them. Guy Carawan has been involved with the Civil Rights Movement since almost before there was a Civil Rights Movement.
He is responsible for popularizing the song, “We Shall Overcome.” Guy and Candie met, and were married, at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee.
These famous veterans of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) with years of experience in dealing with social justice issues were right in our midst, and barely 30 people showed up to talk to them. ETSU can get about a thousand people to show up to see a porn star, but can’t get 30 people in one room to meet with anyone who holds any real wisdom.
I thought that the Ella Baker tour would center more around the memory of Ella Baker and her legacy, but instead the conversation-facilitated by El-Amin and the Carawans-turned quickly to social justice issues on campus. What social justice issues, you might ask?
I am referring to the hate mail that members of the Rainbow Alliance and Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance receive on a weekly basis. ETSU advertises diversity and tolerance, and yet does not give those students the resources they need.
On Monday night, 30 of us sat in a circle in one of the Culp Center’s dining rooms. After half an hour minutes, we all warmed up and the conversation really started to flow.
I had never experienced a forum of discussion quite like that one. We hashed out racial tensions on campus, we discussed problems and solutions, we asked the big questions-like how to bring students together, how to organize students and get them involved.
A student movement desperately needs to take place on this campus.
So here is my request for you: the ET should be the watchdog of this campus, should showcase the stories that other newspapers in the area cannot tell. We should inform students, and we should showcase as many student voices as possible.
We would like to. I’d like to formally request that you write to me. Write what you think about the parking “solution,” the tobacco ban, low student retention or about someone you feel makes a difference on campus. Send me a letter, or if you are feeling braver write a guest column that will be featured in the Viewpoint section.
While the East Tennessean may not have been responsible for the removal and-hopefully-the repair of the emergency phones, I can assure you that the press, even a small one, is a powerful thing.
Write to me at eteditor@etsu.edu.

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