Increasing apathy concerns many

Student apathy toward on-campus events and programming has become a much-discussed topic at universities nationwide. Drew University is no different.
A Feb. 20, 2008 article posted on the National Association of Statistics website, www.nas.org, that discussed the decline in student and faculty involvment on campuses nationwide said, “Carnegie found widespread disappointment and concern among faculty, students and college presidents about the state of ‘community’ on their campuses. It found that institutions scored poorly on the level of interaction among faculty and students and that the majority of students had become ‘less engaged in all aspects of academic and nonacademic campus life.”
Apathy among Drewids has become “a fairly large issue,” according to Michael Richards (’12), who is The Space night chair on UPB, the coordinator for the Orientation Committee and the manager of the newly-founded Programming on Weekends team. 
Maddie Hicks (’13) said, “I feel like the attitude is that it’s not cool to go to most of the events here that don’t involve alcohol.”
Greg Marrero (’10) said, “The interest has gone down since I arrived at Drew. Many clubs and organizations try to attract students with food and prizes, but it shouldn’t be that way. They should attend the event because they are interested.”
During the first Student Government Association meeting of this semester, Associate Dean of Campus Life and Student Affairs Samuel Haynes talked about poor attendance at the majority of events held last semester. He explained that he is working with other faculty, staff and students to put on events this semester and the coming years that students have expressed interest in. Lack of advertisement was also discussed by SGA members.
Richards said, “There are some students on campus who are simply indifferent to the amazing programs that Drew has to offer, which is very unfortunate. But outside of this small group, I believe that many students want to attend events and get involved but don’t know how.”
Richards also explained that poor attendance could be attributed to club and organization members not having aquired the skills yet to effectively organize an event. He said, “Many of these groups lack the knowledge and resources that it takes to run successful events. Staff and administration cannot expect these student groups to run successful and well-attended events because the university does not provide any training in event programming. In no way am I placing blame or pointing fingers at anyone. It’s just a flaw in the system.”
Students at other universities had varied opinions about whether apathy is a problem.  
Marco Ranzi (’13), a student at Pennsylvania State University, had strong opinions about the prevalence of campus activities. He said, “There is a lot of stuff to do that’s not parties, always events going on like game night.” Recently, Donard Idada (’12) created a club called Club Drew. Its goal is to create an on-campus, multipurpose night club in which a different themed dance would be held at least once a month.
 When asked about his experience at football games and other sporting events at Penn State, Ranzi said, “There is tons of school spirit here. The majority of people who attend campus events are sophomores and freshman and there is usually a good turnout for those, but all grades come out to sports events.”
Mollie Nolan (’12), a student at Franklin & Marshall University, said, “I think that here students involved in greek life don’t have apathy towards on-campus activities, however, I think that there is a large amount of apathy in students who aren’t involved in greek life.” Nolan also said that about how there is involvement on campus because of greek life—without it, she explained, barely anyone would get involved. Although Drew does not have greek life, there are many events that take place each week. There has also been a recent push to add greek life to Drew’s list of organizations.
Kate Goodman (’12), a student at The College of New Jersey, explained that some events are well attended while others are not. “It usually depends on what it is,” she said.
According to Goodman, weekend movies are offered but are not well attended. “I’ve never gone to a single one of those,” she said. She also said that sporting events are not generally well attended. “If you’re friends with the people you go,” she said. The homecoming game, however, is an exception. “Everyone goes to the homecoming game for football,” she said.
Goodman explained that several past events have been especially popular. Frank Warren, the creator of community art project “PostSecret,” sold out when he came to speak. Ann Coulter’s talk was also well attended.
According to Goodman, when internet sensation Tucker Max came to speak, controversy erupted. Max, a self-described “asshole,” is famous for his stories of drunkenness and sexual escapades. “They didn’t think we should accept his beliefs,” Goodman said.
Students were quick to list the events they attend every week. When asked how many events he attends, Ranzi said, “During football season, I go to every game and I attend a couple of other events a week.”
Nolan said, “On average, I attend six to seven events per week.”
When asked what could be done in the future to help more students get involved and lower the level of apathy among Drewids, Richards said, “I think that student clubs and organizations will see an increase in interest and involvement in programming if current structures and expectations are reviewed and adjusted and if programming training and supervision becomes available, which it will be in the future.”