Webster’s Dictionary defines apathy as “1: release or freedom from passion,” “2: absence or lack of feeling,” and “3: absence or lack of interest or concern.”

When I first arrived at UTM in the fall of 2001, I was struck by an atmosphere of apathy that seems to pervade this campus.

I always thought that college was a place where students registered as left wing liberal activists in student organizations, a place where students introduced new ideas without the fear of being ostracized, a place where students fresh from high school had the new opportunity to express themselves freely, to explore new thoughts and to be themselves.

Maybe I’ve watched too many movies about college. Maybe the reality is more like the reality here on our campus.

It’s rare to hear dissenting voices at UTM. I never was introduced to any group of students that seemed particularly interested in any sort of changes.

I haven’t seen any sign that the student body here even cares about all of the tuition increases brought about by the disaster that is our state government.

I know there has to be people on this campus like me, that think that we are too quiet, that think that this campus is too concerned with an image of respectability and calm.

I think that this would be a better environment for an education if everyone with controversial, new, different, upsetting and even revolutionary ideas was out there telling everyone about them.

I think that people’s complaints on issues of racism, discrimination, school procedures, state government issues and national issues should be heard loud and clear.

They should be printed in bold, for the rest of us to read. The freedom that truly makes our nation as special as it is is our right to voice our opinions, regardless of how ‘out of the ordinary’ they are.

That’s why I say, stand up, put your hands on either side of your mouth and shout out what it is that you want us to hear.

Send your opinions to The Pacer and The Back Row for publication. Don’t feel like the apathy on this campus is some kind of rule.

If it really is the norm here, it doesn’t have to be. After all, this is your campus as much as it is mine, and you might not ever have the chance to be as expressive as you can be here in college.

Take advantage of it!

Stephen Helgeson is a Sophomore Psychology major.