The year is coming to a close and let’s be honest; during the course of it I have addressed some very serious and some very controversial topics. I have tackled everything from people who smell to freshman fire alarms. I believe that I have handled these hard hitting national issues with grace and class. However, last week you may have noticed something new gracing the opinion section of the Arrow: a little article by our assistant editor-in-chief called “The State of the University.” This article has managed to cause a lot of controversy and a lot of buzz, both good and bad. In the last issue you were all encouraged to send in your thoughts on it in the form of a Letter to the Editor. Therefore I would like to use my “Payne in the Pierce” to extend my own Letter to the Editor about this particular editorial.
Now I know what you are all thinking. The most important hot button topic of this article must be addressed first. This is of course the fact that “The State of the University” was given the entire top half of the opinion page and our beloved “Payne in the Pierce” was pushed to the bottom right corner!!! I know you were all shocked and devastated, as I was. I know you may have been confused and concerned, asking “where is my tri-weekly dose of cynicism and sarcasm?” My personal guess is that it wasn’t until you pulled out a magnifying glass that you were even able to find my column tucked in the corner. It pains me to know that my year and a week long commitment means so little that I could just be pushed where people barely cast a glance. It hurt me deep in my soul, but I’m on the mend.
That’s not all though. I’m sure that you all also noticed that not only did he take up half of the page—he also got a pull quote, right there in the middle of an article! In case you didn’t notice, he’s quoting himself in it! Looks like a simple by-line isn’t good enough for the big bad assistant editor-in-chief! Oh no! He needs a big ole’ pull quote! Apparently if the by-line didn’t give us enough of an indication of who wrote the article, there had to be an pull quote in italics to drive it home. Maybe we could have bumped “Payne in the Pierce” up a few inches and just rolled sans-excerpt?
As a working member of the Arrow staff, I have been able to see what it has been like on the inside with all of the controversy about this article: rumors flying around about papers being stolen, angry Letters to the Editor, and campus-wide buzz. So I decided to do a little external investigating. I began talking to people on campus about the big hub-ub over “The State of the University,” and the results were shocking. I asked random students (and by random students I mean people I know because it’s weird to go up to people I don’t) about what they thought about the controversy and they had one thing to say: “I haven’t heard about it. Is it good?”
That’s right! Feast your eyes, Franklin Pierce, the majority of you had no idea it even existed! I can’t really make fun though. You see, I asked those same people if they were avid readers of my column so I could get a good feel of my core readership. Their response to that question was “Oh yeah! You write that Wiggity-something article, right?”
There you go FPU. My final column of the year and I must admit that I find my commentary on the true core issues of this controversy to be dead on. However, I have to say one last thing about it. In all honesty I can’t comment on what Nick said about the professors and administrators. I don’t know enough about it. I can say, however, that I understand what he means when he talks about student involvement on campus. I am going into my last year as a student at FPU and the one thing I’ve learned is that if you don’t put yourself out there and get involved in as much as you can, you’re really not getting the college experience. We only get four years. We don’t want to waste them. With that I want to wish you all a fun and safe summer vacation and I look forward to talking with you when we return. As always, we will have a lot to discuss.
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