Don’t talk, make it happen

I was venting to a friend about the slow responses I was receiving from several departments within the university, and she immediately let me know how she felt.

Her statements like “I hate this” and “I can’t stand that” made me upset. But I guess it was my fault.

I started a conversation that ended the same way it would with many students on campus -with all talk, but no action.

My friend complained about how she never gets anything done in the financial aid office. I told her about my problems with the financial aid office during my freshman year, and an article I had written about the office’s inaccuracies.

I spoke with Delores Davis, the financial aid director at the time, about the problems I’d heard many students voicing concerns over. She promised those issues would be handled.

And they were.

The lines are now shorter and the service is a lot better than it was in 1999. RattlerLink now allows students to get information from the FAMU Web site instead of making the trip to financial aid.

Students are too apathetic. Some seem to have the attitude of “I can’t do it all by myself.” We wait until someone else decides to address an issue instead of making something happen.

During my freshman year, students complained that library hours should be extended. It was another two years before the “Leading Light” administration got the hours extended past the midnight closing time to 2:00 a.m.

That same apathetic attitude is the reason why it’s taking so long for things to change. That same attitude is the reason we’re still touting FAMU as Time Magazine’s 1997 College of the Year, instead of trying to surpass the title.

We should understand that this is our university. The money we pay goes toward funding the same issues we complain about and the salaries of the people causing them.

If we continue to vent to each other, and not to someone who can make a difference, nothing will get done.

And we’ll never move past what we were in 1997.

Marlon A. Walker, 21, is a senior newspaper journalism student from Detroit. He is The Famuan’s News Editor. He can be reached at marlonawalker@aol.com.