To The Editor:
The Final Jeopardy category is Economics and Current Events.
Answer: When consumers are not given sufficient data, this type of a market failure occurs.
Question: What is an information failure?
After living in a vapid, isolated, and apathetic environment for two years, it takes a lot to irk me. The hallways of closed doors with sounds of Counter-strike and World of Warcraft wafting through them are now familiar, as well as the predominance of ethnically and religiously exclusive clubs on campus that I never seem to meet the requirements for. My intention is not to whine, but to provide context. As Hyman Roth said to Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II, “This is the business we have chosen,” and I have made peace with that.
Alcoholism and video gaming aside, there isn’t much to do here. Anyone who says differently is a liar. A damned liar. Every once in a great while, however, something amazing happens. April 17, 2005 was such a day. Ken Jennings, the “Jeopardy!” champion, the all-time quiz show champion, and one of the most widely recognized, inspiring, and beloved people of the news of the past year, spoke at Siena College, a short ride from RPI. The most exciting and memorable thing to ever happen to this area, and I missed it.
Word of mouth does not exist at this college beyond homework assignments and Halo 2 LAN parties, so if it isn’t printed, we don’t know about it. Where I live, when a good speaker comes to a local college, everybody knows about it. I realize the type of community you are dealing with, and The Polytechnic is not entirely to blame. I have, however, been noticing a trend towards the trivialization of news (pardon the pun) into detached sections like “In the Nation and the World” or “Weird off the Wire” and then skimping on “What’s Happening.” While all somewhat useful, in the all-important section I see only a few free concerts I couldn’t care less about, and no Ken Jennings.
I have missed out on a great opportunity and I am pissed off, but there is no use in crying over spilled milk. The point is that this is not an isolated incident, but part of a larger occurrence. Most of the fun events I’ve participated in around RPI—a chess tournament, a trivia bowl, an eating contest, etc.—are given insufficient coverage (usually none at all) to make people aware of them, or to generate an interest. Things like student elections, while objectively newsworthy, usually trump other (more useful) news.
I regularly read your publication from front to back, with the exception of the sports section. I noticed several lamentations in your past issue over low voter morale; I posit that the cause of this is a general feeling of detachment, and that students would like to be better informed about real opportunities here, however seldom they may occur.
Dan Newman
MATL ’07
