It baffles me how people can walk around campus and say there’s nothing to do at FAU. Yeah, sure, I know FAU is mostly a commuter school. Hell — I drive down here from Lake Worth. That doesn’t mean that there’s not a lot going on at FAU.
Look around campus and you’ll see fliers hung up every which way. In the breezeway there are clubs and organizations looking for members and attempting to lure them in with free food or gizmos.
Even the UP tries to give out newspapers to passers-by on occasion, but sadly most of them just put on the blinders and pretend that we don’t exist.
Those who suffer from selective tunnel vision are the students who really miss out on the college experience. They don’t care about FAU — they just want the degree to get a better job — and that’s fine for them. If they don’t want to put anything into the university, if they just want to see college as just another obstacle on the way to making more money rather than a life experience, that’s their right. But sadly, it’s these students who pollute the rest of us with their negativity, and make us feel bad for actually doing something with our time here.
Despite their cynicism they miss the point. If you go to FAU, you’re old enough to make decisions on your own, so no one is really forcing you to go to school here. Why not make the best of your time at FAU by joining a club, working for an organization, or volunteering around campus.
Remember, FAU is where it’s at because of the people here. It can’t improve without student participation, and it can only get worse through apathy. Unfortunately, for most students, apathy is all they can muster up while on campus.
Most people go to classes, then they head off to work or home without even taking notice of everything going on here. It’s not that people aren’t trying to get the word out about their clubs or events, it’s that everyone is trying so hard there’s an almost circus-like atmosphere in the breezeway. It can be an agoraphobic’s nightmare.
The problem is, the people putting on these spectacles are in the minority. They’re the hardworking few who actually care about FAU and the college experience, and this is how they get thanked, getting ignored or avoided by fellow students? It’s a shame, and it’s that kind of attitude that will never make FAU a top tier school. This is why FAU is only in the newspapers for scandals and not students, because the students just don’t care.
Before construction began in front of the University Center, there was a tile on the sidewalk that read “FAU can be beautiful.” I used to read it all the time as I hurried to class from the UC without even thinking about what it meant. I think I get it now — it means that FAU doesn’t have to stand for Find Another University. Instead of Finding Another University, we as students should do our best to improve our school during our tenure here.