As a member of the Syracuse University Student Association and a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, I cannot believe the disaster that took place on Feb. 12 at the Student Association meeting. The student input was supposed to be gathered for the benefit of SA, and an attempt to touch on the concerns of the safety of students during MayFest, a threat sparked by a petition on behalf of SEUNA (Southeast University Neighborhood Association), expressing their disgust with the actions of students and the university. The meeting highlighted every obvious fault with the approaches of students to the administration and their surrounding community; the obvious faults of the community in reprimanding the university and students; the obvious faults of the administration in their complete ignorance and incompetence in resolving any issues involving their students and the surrounding Syracuse community.

The students not apart of MayFest turned SU Showcase committee or members of the Student Association had no grasp of the nature of the problem, and it’s not really their fault – not all of them live off-campus, and a good portion of the audience was freshmen. Students come, stay for a year (or two), then leave. Permanent residents see their homes are slowly falling apart, and students disrespect them, leaving garbage and filth all over their lawns after many a ‘busy’ days, MayFest being the ‘busiest’ of all.

The SEUNA petition asked that Mayfest be brought back on campus -unfortunately, the school can only do that by making MayFest more interesting on campus.

MayFest/SU Showcase has only been around since 2005, but it has been a day to which many students look forward, not really due to the fact that it’s a day to show the fruits of student labor, as the school would like, but because they can relax and enjoy themselves a few days before finals by partying in the sun.

The problem is that the community sees the day as one designated for students to misbehave. No wonder they ask it be taken away – it’s too much of a risk. The school sees the day differently than the students, and instead of making it more interesting to improve on-campus student attendance, they throw the work to a few PR majors who say, ‘Oh, just wait and see.’ I guarantee that whatever the Showcase committee reveals on Feb. 18 will suck, despite the student input that it has received. They still aren’t listening.

Those students, however, who worked hard to show their work, cannot lose such a day of appreciation – the school and the committee just need to incorporate student work with a great series of entertaining events. The school can still showcase student work, the students can still relax, and the community can rest knowing that there won’t be nearly as many people clogging their streets.

It boggles my mind that the school really did not plan this day through – how could they not expect that students would prefer to go drink than be academically engaged, particularly at the end of a semester that has fewer breaks than the one before it?

Ry Bloomdahl

Senior, College of Arts and Science

SA Assembly Member

Published on February 15, 2009 at 12:00 pm