Editorial
Arizona Daily Wildcat
May 4, 1998

Reviving this lifeless campus

UA President Peter Likins thinks this university has a problem.

"I've struggled to understand why the campus community seems discouraged and somewhat fragmented," Likins wrote in a letter announcing the creation of a new vice president for campus life.

The institutional memory of a place like the University of Arizona is an inconsistent one. For every 15-year-entrenched bureaucrat, there are thousands of students who have been and gone.

To the students who have been here for most of the 1990s, there has been no struggle to understand the fragmentation of the campus community. There is no campus community.

Philosophically, it's logical and desirable for a public university to be place where students, faculty and staff from many different backgrounds interact with one another. It is logical and desirable for that interaction to be a key component of the UA's educational experience. This doesn't happen. For all the committees and clubs dedicated to defeating misperception and fostering a climate for exchanging ideas, there is precious little conversation on campus.

From the residence halls to the parking garages, this community of 50,000 is nearly silent on issues like race and safety. For every campus acquaintance rape educator, there are thousands of students who aren't listening, students who for whatever reason don't care.

On a campus where student programs have been among the hardest hit by the budget cuts of this decade, campus life is a 9 to 5 proposition, not an issue of community. The university can't avoid reflecting an increasingly fractured and self-centered society.

As Vice President for Campus Life Saundra Taylor and President Likins explore this "discouraged" institution, they'll find apathy around every corner of the student body. From a student government that steadfastly refuses to represent the views of its constituents, to organizations that haven't been able to bring students together, the last 10 years have obliterated any sense of student community. At any institution of higher learning, the community must be built on the shoulders of students. Taylor and Likins will have their work cut out for them, but there is hope that, with time, energy and money, the university can begin to grow anew. Taylor is right to point out that partnerships between faculty, staff and student organizations are a key to generating a positive interaction on campus. We also think an intensive look at the motivation and goals of the thousands of students who traipse through this campus each year is necessary. An intensive attempt, through focus groups, polling and forums, to gauge the pulse of this place is essential. A grass-roots commitment from campus organizations, starting with the student and faculty governments, to generate a community conversation is imperative if there is any hope of resuscitation.