EDITORIAL: Student concerns are valid
Students hold signs and march in the million student march around campus on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015.
After a week that featured several on-campus demonstrations and the first meeting of a task force between students, city officials, law enforcement and Mount Pleasant residents, the generational gap in this college town began to show its depth.
While about vastly different topics, these events ignited passionate debates between students who feel that their voices are not being heard and residents who don't think students' concerns are valid. Whether it is about the rising price of education, the role of university administrators in dealing with racism or student behavior in neighborhoods north of campus, the new generation of leaders is clashing with those in power.
There is a concerning double standard present, that while students are old enough to know what is appropriate behavior, they are too young to have their opinions respected, especially their political views. We can't be both "accountable adults" and "naive kids" in the minds of our neighbors.
Our generation has been called "whiny millennial crybabies," instead of engaged and civic-minded. You might recall when Generation X was similarly declared to be a group of apathetic, coddled and entitled slackers. Now they are perpetuating the cycle.
A productive channel of communication was finally opened between students and residents after years of silent anger about party behavior reached a boiling point. In the first city/student liaison meeting, some of the common issues discussed were the need for more education about the expectations of law enforcement and modernizing how information is delivered to students.
City officials require a fresh perspective to meet the challenges of issues affecting people living north of campus. They will need the student point of view, which should not be undervalued. City officials need to listen to the solutions presented by our representatives.
The principles driving demonstrators to participate in the Million Student March and a show of solidarity with student-activists at the University of Missouri are not unlike the long-applauded protestors of the 1960s. This eneration who will inherit this country and its problems see faults in society and feel responsible for changing it, just like our parents before us.
In 2020, about half of us will have turned 30. We will no longer be young — and therefore no longer scary — and today’s tired rhetoric about our entitlement and narcissism will go away.
If real change is to happen — in Mount Pleasant and the University of Missouri — students need to get educated and get involved, but residents need to listen to their points of view.
