Meghan LueckeBetween going to class, doing homework and relaxing, many students do not take the time to learn about what is going on in the world outside of the campus bubble. Often times more concerned with MTV’s “The Real World” than the real world, students can get stuck in their own world and lose track of domestic and international affairs.
But problems can develop when students become too ensconced in their own schedules and don’t take the time to become informed. If students are unaware of the problems going on now, they will be lost when it comes time to address these problems.
“Students are going to inherit the world and have the chance to change it,” said Political Science Professor Bill Lowry.
He noted that it is this generation of college-aged students who will deal with the world’s problems, so the more informed we are, the more adequately prepared we will be to fix them.
“Yeah, living within the Wash. U. community can be kind of constricting because it’s easy to get caught up in our own little world here,” said sophomore Liz Kleinrock. “It’s easy to forget that we’re part of something bigger, and cutting ourselves off from the outside could be a dangerous thing.”
This student went on to say she did not feel that most students are as informed as they should be.
So how does one get informed? The University is supplied with various free newspapers, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The New York Times and USA Today. These publications can be found in the library, the Village’s Siegal Commons, the business school and Holmes Lounge. The Olin library also provides in-house copies of newspapers, political journals, news magazines and other publications.
If these are all out, there are a variety of other free sources to turn to. You could make a news Web site such as CNN.com or your favorite newspaper’s Web site your homepage, so it will pop up whenever you go online.
“I’m a compulsive CNN checker,” noted sophomore Will Stein. He went on to say that CNN is a very informative and reliable Web site that always has world headlines. He feels that checking this keeps him well informed. Many such websites will allow you to sign up to get headlines e-mailed to you or even text messages sent to your cell phone.
If you have a radio, there are even more options. Most stations have morning talk shows that you can listen to while eating breakfast and getting ready for class or in the car on the way to campus. You can never go wrong by tuning into National Public Radio (NPR).
Funny as it seems, fans of “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” are actually getting real news. Lowry, a fan of such shows himself, mentioned that comical shows can be informative. It should not be a person’s only source of news, but the issues on these shows can serve as a springboard for investigating deeper interests. It is important, however, to keep in mind the extreme biases of these shows and that their editing is tailored to have a humorous effect.
Overall, most people see staying aware of current events as an educated person’s responsibility. The student lack of exposure to news isn’t just a phenomenon at Wash. U. Caitlin Clark, a sophomore at Fordham University knows from first hand experience the social consequences of being uninformed.
“It’s embarrassing when things like Hurricane Katrina happen and you didn’t know about it for three months,” noted Clark. “If I’d known about it sooner, maybe I could have done something to help.”
National and international news aside, it is also important to be informed of the goings on in the smaller community that you belong to. Student Life, as you probably already know, can always provide you with a great wealth of campus-related information.
Students should take time to be more aware of the world around them. There’s a lot going on out there, and ignorance never helped anybody.