Point News, 1993 November 2

              Page 4 The Point News November 2,1993
Scott McCormick-
Oil shortages, disco, sailboats, and campus apathy
If you have ever asked your friends
why they came to St. Mary’s College
of Maryland one of their most com­mon
answers is the water and the
sailing. Sa I sit here on a rainy Satur­day
afternoon at the end of October I
think to myself how can we use this
valuable knowledge which I have just
pulled out of my ear (or some other
bodily orifice, I am not sure which) to
address the issue of student apathy on
campus. And then it came to me as
though it had been lurking at the back
of my untapped psychic ability, an
advertising idea to beat all advertis­ing
ideas. This would be bigger than
Pepsi’s “Gotta Have It” campaign. It
would be more radical than the school
store’s “New Look.” A campaign that
would put my brilliant idea to change
the word beef to the word lizard in all
those “Beef, it’s what’s for Dinner”
commercials. This would be the cul­mination
of all the knowledge of west­ern
culture. Mynewcampaignwillbe
called “There will be SailboatsP’cam-paign
’93.
Think about it, if you look at all the
advertising that the school does for
new students, the way the waterfront
and sailboats are plastered all over the
catalogue and the way the Gover­nor’s
Cup is probably one of the coun­ty’s
number one moneymaking events
in Southern Maryland. All of this
leads me that in order to combat stu­dent
apathy, we should use sailboats
and the water as much as we can in
our advertising and propaganda. If
we are having a dance we need to
have sailboats as the theme. If we are
having a speaker put them down at the
waterfront at about sundown. Every­one
will come for the sunset, but they
The SGA should try
to hold an open meet­ing
on Challenge
America, there seems
to be enough room on
the boat (or is it a
ship).
will stay for the speaker. If the Career
Center is having a j ob fair they should
borrow a sailboat and set it right in
frontofLowerCharles Hall. The SGA
should try to hold an open meeting on
Challenge America, there seems to
be enough room on the boat (or is it a
ship). Not trying to be sarcastic, wait
a minute, yes, I am trying to be sarcas­tic,
I knew I couldn’t fool you all. The
point is that student apathy has no
quick fix solution you can’t break it
down into its component parts and
say that’s what’s wrong, because peo­ple
have a number of very personal
and very real reasons for not getting
involved.
As someone who is trying to be a
college renaissance man, I can’t throw
stones at other people for not doing
what, at times, seems to be an almost
impossible task ofbeing involved and
maintaining good grades. I believe in
my heart of hearts that everyone in
this college community contributes
to someone else’s and usually several
someone else’s lives here at SMC.
Where I believe we fall short is in our
willingness to take just two hours out
of our week and go and see some of
the programming that the people in
the Office of Student Activities, the
Health Center, the Career Center,
Residence Life, the Student Govern­ment,
and the Athletics Department
have put together for us.
You don’t have to join the soccer
team to come out to watch a game.
You don’t have to sail to go down to
the beach to watch a regatta. You
don’t have to be right wing Republi­can
to listen to a College Republican
sponsored event. It helps, but you
don’t have to be.
There is a whole hell of a lot of stuff
going on around here that if you sim­ply
took the two hours to go watch a
play or to go to a poetry reading, you
might get just a little bit more out of
your college education thanapiece of
paper with your name and the seal of
the state of Maryland at the end of
your four to six years here at beautiful
St. Mary’s College, on the beautiful
St. Mary’s River, in historic St. Mary’s
You don't have to be
right wing Republi­can
to listen to a
College Republican
sponsored event It
helps, but you don't
have to be.
City, in Southern St. Mary’s County.
One final thought before I go, not
everyone needs to be involved in the
popular things. A case in point: disco.
I know I am offending someone, so
just be ready for the punch-line, this is
a joke after all.
The late seventies were character­ized
by two cultural phenomena; the
oil crisis and the rise of disco. I put
before you true believers that these
two events are relatedand that through
the simple use of logic I can prove this
dastardly conspiracy.
When we think of the seventies and
disco we think of one movie, “Satur­day
Night Fever.” The story of a you
Italian boy struggling to gain popularity
on the dance floor. We then think of that
famous shot ofMr. JohnTravolta, stand­ing
with his hand pointed towards the
ceiling, wearing a white suit. What kind
of white suit? A white polyester suit.
Whatispolyester made ofyoumay ask,
oil. Oil which was in demand during
those OPEC controlled years. There
fore I maintain that the popularity o f the
polyester leisure suit of the disco age
contributed to the oil shortage in the
United States during the mid to late
1970s.
The idea here is that by becoming
involved in all the cultural fads and not
following your own heart in what you
do while your in college, you could
cause major damage to the economy of
the country we call home. Becoming
involved is not always easy but, if you
do itrightyou’ll wantto do itmore often
Funny, I could say the same thing about
my sex life. Stay safe and look for my
special article on the Kennedy Assassi­nation
and its connection to the college
next week. Now go get involved in
something, even if it is the disco club.
Roll Call: a fun word find for folks with lots and
lots of time on their hands
Q Y H M I L E S S M H J E D W A U I N H
K W J O B R O N w S A L A K I M A S A G
E I E T A B C L N E 0 I W E N E Y N P L
J L N I L G A I G D A R G E W 0 S J I H
B L N E N K E N D G T K I M A O s I L M
R I A S G G C V B I E W Y U N J u S Q I
O A E L G L R X R V A S J S N D B L I E
W M A S R A D A A P O I I L E A O W P O
M S B I F V T E D S L N T I R Q R U S N
A O E B E I I G Y I A A P I B u K F G E
X N A W K N R O Y R S O W I L E R T Y E
V R D S N C F W S R L J O H N R S W E T
B E T o U O D S W A G I N E W I J A N U
S W R R O Y G B S H M A R Y I V K I L E
E S S W F H G H B R O W N A w R P O L T
W I L L I A N S H I O M F D s A W R E T
S L E I M B R E D H L P O K T E U X Z W
o U T I E K M I O L A S H O J H D R E T
Ok, in case you are wondering what
in the world the thing to the left is, it
is called a Word Find puzzle. In this
particular puzzle the object is to
locate as many former (or soon tobe
former) adminstration and staff of St
Maiy's College. The people's first
and last names are listed. However
the names are not neccesarily
connected. For example, Ronnie
might be found on one end of the
puzzle, while Miles might be found
on another
RonnieMiles
Ken Weingrad
Sue Jump
Eli Broun
Mary Lavin
Mike Polash
Doug Hanson
Joanni Harris
Brenda Brady
rohn Williamson