With a new school year comes many new exciting events. The startling reminder that the beginning of classes means a new mountain of schoolwork to climb is attached to the weekly anticipation of another opportunity to watch our football team take the field. Every year has its own set of new challenges and sources of excitement across campus.
But what I’ve also come to learn in my time at The University of Alabama is that a new fall semester also brings a fresh set of criticism from anything to everything around campus. Whether it is the yearly complaints about the unfairness of block seating at football games or the shortcomings of Bama Dining, many complaints have very little to do with the general well-being of our student body.
More pressing matters are rarely, if ever, addressed. Topics that truly matter include the safety and security of our community after multiple shootings just a short walk from the Quad, the seemingly endless increase in the cost of our tuition and books and the use of the plus/minus system in grading (which has the ability to cheat our all-important GPA out of precious points). Issues such as these affect every student on this campus and are a bit more serious than where we sit at football games.
The problems that are too often exaggerated and endlessly debated by so many are completely irrelevant to our fellow students, some of whom may not even be able to afford to attend our University after another increase in tuition cost. I’m sure all of those students would love to be sitting anywhere in Bryant-Denny this fall for $5 a ticket.
It has also been too easy for us to forget about the near-tragic incident in downtown Tuscaloosa that happened a mere two months ago, but we vividly recall all those average meals that we were so unjustly forced to endure at Lakeside Dining as a freshman.
While I am not questioning the legitimacy of complaints against matters such as political views expressed on the Quad in chalk, some issues seem superficial and irrelevant in the true scope of our community. Instead of worrying about student groups getting slightly better seating at games, we should be more interested in the student sitting next to us in class who has to work every football game so that he can pay for his books and provide for himself.
It has become way too easy for us to find problems with the great opportunities we have every day instead of identifying important issues, addressing them and calling for changes to be made.
As a new school year starts, along with the inaugural year of a new University president, I hope we can all take a step back, focus on what truly matters on our campus and work towards changing more than just the menu at Fresh Foods.
Brad Tipper is a junior majoring in political science and economics. His column runs biweekly on Monday.
