Every once in a while, things do not work out as expected. Often, someone has to take responsibility and deal with the consequences. This year, the Union has been placed in such a position. I therefore must inform you that the student body absorbed the cost of 10 iPods to be given to individuals.
These were the slightly edited words of James Fisher, our illustrious President of the Union, in his “Derby” in last week’s issue. He was describing the Union Challenge—a new effort to solicit student feedback and suggestions regarding student life on campus. The Challenge saw its debut on Monday in an e-mail sent to the student body, where Fisher proclaimed the first of 10 essay topics. The hope is that by Friday, a plethora of students will have submitted their comments; a winning entry will then be selected from all the ideas, and that author will receive a bright red media player—an iPod emblazoned with the Rensselaer seal.
The iPods were paid for out of funds previously allocated to the Ruckus program (recall that it originally wasn’t entirely supported by advertising). Fisher justified this expense as an opportunity for the student body to “derive a return on its investment.” I really have a hard time buying that, though. Let us examine a previous attempt to get student feedback on Union activities. While we were exploring the possibility of a music service for the student body, the Student Senate took a survey of its constituents. This was simply a highly publicized online form that took approximately two minutes to complete at no cost (or effort, really), yet it received only 1,554 responses to 8,353 invitations. With this in mind, and the fact that each phase of this contest lasts less than five full days, I fail to see how the E-Board expects to get more than a half-dozen well-thought-out responses—and that’s a liberal estimate, in my opinion.
Student apathy, a general unwillingness to write essays, and a rather short contest lifetime are only a few of the things wrong with this proposal. The competition itself is counterproductive; people will write, not to provide useful feedback, but to get an iPod. It seems to be a forced attempt to garner opinions, and the result will be just that—forced opinions. With all due respect to the E-Board and its “selected members” who will be determining the winners every week, I think it will be impossible to make a good decision. Will the most feasible ideas be rewarded, or the most creative? I’m afraid that they will be forced to decide between the interesting and innovative, and the doable.
But really, I think the most egregious problem with the whole scenario is that this money could well have been spent in a number of other useful ways that would have immediately and definitely benefited a large portion of the student body. Money is hot on the minds of nearly all the club officers at this time of year, and there are, as usual, several organizations that could have benefited from a little extra financial support. The funds that went towards buying and engraving the iPods could have gone towards these clubs, and therefore would have directly aided a large subset of the student body ... instead of just 10 individuals.
I feel that this program is doomed to failure, but for the sake of this money already spent, I’ll issue this challenge of my own. Fisher and members of the Executive Board, prove me wrong; show me a great return on this “investment.” Drum up interest and come up with good contest topics. I hope dearly that we end up with 10 different people walking away with iPods, and that we end up with 10 quality ideas. I don’t think it will happen, but I’ve been wrong before.
