In my travels between classes this semester, I have often stopped at the Livingston Student Center for a drink or to pick up a copy of The Daily Targum. Since the beginning of the semester, I have seen two large flat-screen televisions sit unused, attached to a wall across from the assorted publications. I had wondered what they were for, but I assumed they would eventually be used for something. Then came the front-page article expressing concern over the lack of signs at the student center bus stop. It explained that the televisions were supposed to be used to display departure times for the buses that stop at the Livingston Student Center. Of course, up until this point, those televisions have sat idle. Today, when I arrived at the student center, I walked towards the TVs and, lo and behold, one of them was being used for its intended purpose! While this is an exciting advancement, I wondered why the television happened to turn on the same day that an article that slammed the University’s Department of Transportation Services appeared. To add insult to injury, as I observed the televisions, two bus drivers came up to the monitor to stand in awe of this new piece of technology. Was the article the main catalyst for this advancement? Why did the department not take the initiative on their own to get this new program up and running? Does it have to take the outcry of concerned students in a media publication to get anything done? What the Department of Transportation Services did today, in my opinion, was promote a theory that lets students sit complacently until they start to complain, and it is just unfair. While this particular topic of discussion is trivial in some aspects, what prevents University Housing from stopping construction and landscaping in the early hours of the morning so residents can get more sleep? Nothing. What keeps the Office of Academic Advising from removing its inefficient, bureaucratic system that sends students from campus to campus without any solid answers? Nothing. It is just that no one has written an article in the Targum complaining about it yet.
Jordan Gochman is a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student majoring in labor studies.
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