Inquiring Minds: Leave vacant weekend halls to McInnis

Campus life is dead.

At least that is what Nietzsche would say if he were a resident student at Eastern. And he would be right.

Walk around just about any dorm hall on a Friday or Saturday night, and you’ll find next to nothing. This might be heaven for a hermit, but for the average college student stuck on campus, it can be quite the opposite.

Where does everyone go? Sadly, it’s not to campus functions or even local events as most might hope. Instead, for many campus residents, the weekend destination is home.

Admittedly, your own bed and some of Mom’s cooking can be just what the doctor ordered after a work-loaded, stressful week. But so can bonding with campus friends.

Life is also understandably more complicated for college students who live close to campus. Home responsibilities and relationships are harder to neglect since the excuse of distance isn’t so easy to use.

But you’re only as responsible and committed as you allow yourself to be.

Then there are those high school friends who haven’t yet left home and are still inviting you to parties every weekend.

But what about your friends here? Few people attend college solely for the academics.

And of course, there’s the biggest excuse for going home on the weekend: nothing happens on campus.

This excuse may be fair enough-if you’re going to be sitting around doing nothing, you might as well be at home-but it’s not fully legitimate.

It is the people who give up on campus activity who are contributing to the weekend boredom.

If there’s one ingrained notion in the head of any student who has survived INST 150, it’s community. It’s what Eastern is good at. Still, this editorial staff thinks that the student body could improve a little in this area.

While there are events taking place on campus (occasional club parties, hall activities and random wrestling matches) few are well attended.

At a university that so emphasizes community, residence life should not resemble a commuter campus.

Students, however, aren’t the only ones to blame.

The Student Acitivites Board makes an effort, but they don’t necessarily suit everyone’s style. So how can we keep building community on weekends? We have a few suggestions:

Information: a publication besides the The Waterwheel that is specific to local weekend entertainment, both on and off campus.

Transportation: vans made available for student-led group trips.

Initiation: student willingness to take advantage and make the most of campus life.

This last request will perhaps be the most difficult to fulfill, but understand that it is not unrealistic. We are not asking you to sacrifice a weekend at home in order to sit around with the rest of us in the hall, waiting for a party to start.

We’re simply encouraging a little creativity and initiative to get out, grab a few classmates and suck the marrow out of campus life.

Campus life and all the people attached come and go more quickly than we’d like to think.

Just ask any graduating senior, and leave the vacant weekend halls to McInnis.

Inquiring Minds is the collective opinion of the editorial staff and not necessarily representative of the entire staff. It is written biweekly by the managing editor and the editor-in-chief.