At this point in my column-writing career, it becomes harder each week to think of a new and interesting topic. Toward the beginning of my writing tenure, I adopted an “E.P. cynically venting about life and U.Va.” approach. These columns usually centered on pet peeves or on anything I could readily judge. Sometimes I would use recent life developments or events as fodder for discussion — side note, new drinking game: Imbibe every time you hear the phrase “fodder for discussion” in an English discussion and drink twice if your TA utters the phrase — but I was always weary of writing a “Dear God, It’s Me, E.P.” journalistic diary.
Aside from wanting to imprison the 2,000 chicks who wore skin-tight cat or zebra-print leotards for Halloween, my pet peeve well runs dry. My only life developments involve finally applying for a job and then relaying this measly life development in every small talk conversation I have.
To escape this void of inspiration, I have begun attacking every gchat friend I have in a hunt for column ideas. Today, a clever friend offered me this: “What is usually ignored? Write about that.” Let us pretend that my first responses were not “minorities” or “homeless people on the Corner,” because plenty of other more serious columns can tackle those issues. So — what else is ignored?
Safety labels on Four Lokos, “Take just one” notices on bathroom paper towel dispensers and that fifth Facebook event invitation you received in the last hour. What about that guy you hooked up with two weekends ago who cannot take a hint and just sent you a triple-text? Or that “quick little survey that will just take five minutes!” your friend in the Commerce School spammed out to his listservs? Tablers on the Lawn — unless you actually recognize someone trying to shove a flyer into any part of your tight-fisted hand — and general body meeting minutes. We ignore professorial pleas to figure out research paper topics well ahead of time, and we bypass laws of public indecency — and hopefully spotlights and plastic wrap — every time we streak the Lawn.
Although these instances are day-to-day and might seem trivial, they add up to a collective culture of ignorance. I know, at a University with more than 600 student organizations, traditions of honor and student self-governance, advocacy and engagement, how on earth — there’s a club for that too! — did I reach this conclusion? Well, I’m looking at U.Va. on a day-to-day basis. Think about the tablers on the Lawn — a group as resilient as the U.S. Postal Service. They loiter and hassle to promote a cappella concerts, voter registration, philanthropies and blood drives. This one corner epitomizes the University’s spirit and activism, its opposite of ignorance.
But who stops? Who, beyond friends or those who feel pangs of guilt after making eye contact with a dreaded tabler, takes time out of their day to ask questions or sign up for the event? It seems like our activism is a one-way street. “Everyone is involved and everyone cares about something,” I say on my admissions tours, but do we care beyond our own activities? And, I ask myself as I loathe every general body meeting I have to attend, do we even care about our own activities?
Groups incentivize non-members to attend events by luring them in with promises of free food or alcohol, and events without incentives sink into the black hole of every other University activity occurring in the same time slot. Activities flood our Facebooks and email accounts, but can we really consider something an “activity” if everyone except its members passes over it? We are students at a top research institution with a small liberal arts feel, but we collectively take advantage of a tiny fraction of the opportunities afforded to us. It would be impossible for each person to extend his intellectual curiosity to every facet of Grounds — indeed, I can barely extend it to all of my 15 credits — but for our University to be the bustling arena of activism that we describe, we need to ensure that we are both the fans and the players in the game.
Elizabeth’s column runs biweekly Tuesdays. She can be reached at e.stonehill@cavalierdaily.com.
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