This is the worst time possible for student apathy
Student body, this is the worst time possible to be apathetic. True, the proposals laid out by YUSU to avoid portering cuts have been rejected. But there’s still time to try to reverse the situation, and attempting this might not be too taxing.
At the protest against portering cuts on Thursday, a mere approximate number of a hundred students turned up, many of whom were second or third years who are far less likely to be affected by the revised portering hours. The protest may have been held in the middle of a weekday, but I’m sure many more could have spared at least half an hour from their pressing (post-Ziggy’s Facebook-stalking) schedules between 12 and 2pm. As such, this seems to be either a prime example of great indifference among the student population or an extreme commitment to academic studies. And we all know that even the most hardcore academics make time for ‘Trusday’ and Xbox Live sessions really. So is there a valid excuse for what may be termed as ignorant disinterest? The truth is that when an issue personally affects us, ignorance is no longer bliss.
I’m sure a lot of people will now be thinking that it’s too late to campaign about portering cuts because changes have already been made. Maybe it is. But then again, YUSU aren’t admitting defeat just yet. On the contrary, Tim Ngwena has stated that “this is not a flash in the pan campaign.” We can expect to be seeing neon green posters around campus for some time to come. Even those from Langwith, Derwent and Vanbrugh may have had enough of hearing about portering cuts, despite it actually affecting them, yet we still have no grounds for whining. If YUSU have hope and continue making the effort to support this area of University welfare, surely it isn’t too much to ask that we contribute to a campaign designed for our benefit? We certainly can’t complain about a lack of representation.
Admittedly, the human condition makes us inclined to grumble about more or less anything, and consequently take no form of action. But I’m sure that University of York students are deep down somewhat smarter than that. Of course I realise it’s not the 60s, and I’m not asking for a sudden influx of radically enthused student activism. However, (and I am attempting to avoid sounding like a member of YUSU making a motivational election speech here) without voicing our opinions to someone other than equally dispassionate flatmates, or taking action on matters that affect us, we may never be able to call the University of York our own.
Hopefully those who were disinterested before will now realise the importance of campaigning to regain night porters in the colleges affected. As the saying goes, you can never really appreciate something until you lose it. The reality is that unless students start emailing complaints about the impact the cuts have on daily life, the changes are unlikely to be reversed. Greater involvement with issues within our University should simply become a matter of course in the future. The topic shouldn’t have to concern a life or death situation to fully engage us.
From now, the future of portering relies on the student population as much as it does on YUSU, if not more. It doesn’t help that the weather is a bit depressing at the moment, but we can still avoid becoming apathetic about portering cuts. It won’t hurt just to try.
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This is probably one of the worst pieces of writing I have ever seen. Do you even know what the human condition is or do you consider yourself the next Sartre?