When the forum regarding the SRA
process was held on Oct. 3, students

decried the methods that had excluded student input. Thankfully, the SRA

report is now open and available for
student viewing and commentary. Yet,
as of Oct. 11 there had only been two
comments submitted on the report.

Yesterday, a booth was set up by
ASNMU at the dining hall and offered
students an incentive to comment in

the form of a raffle ticket for a free parking pass. Thanks to the event, there

are now over 60 comments on the report. However, it’s a pathetic reflection

on the state of student interest that an
incentive had to be present in order to
interest students.

Those present at the SRA forum

heckled the creators of the report furiously, claiming students had a right to

offer input. Here at The North Wind, we

even editorialized on the unjustified exclusion of student voices and vouched

for future inclusion. Yet, when given the
opportunity, students showed complete

disregard for the reports. For some reason, students don’t value their own opinion enough to share it in a professional

context. Why is this? It’s certainly not

because of the lack of opinion. Many
students consistently bemoan the
slightest inconveniences or changes
on campus. It’s not hard to generate an

anger-fueled conversation when asking students face-to-face about their

thoughts. So what is preventing them
from sharing their ideas?

One explanation is that students do
not feel as though their voice will be
heard. It’s understandable that in such a
large campus community, and under an

administration that has been unresponsive to student opinion in the past, that

this would prevent people from speaking out. Because of the overwhelming amount of opinions constantly espoused, it can seem as though your

single voice doesn’t matter. However,
this illusion simply isn’t accurate.
As students, we have a responsibility
to ourselves and to each other to speak
up. Individuals alone can have trouble
turning the gears of change. But when
we all begin to speak up for what we
believe, our voices entwine into one
booming demand for change.

Comment your thoughts on the SRA
report before it closes on Nov. 2. It can
be found at www.nmu.edu/sra/reports.