SU Showcase unfocused due to lack of commitment from university
Wednesday Hill Communications officially renamed MayFest to SU Showcase. And with the name change, promised new student oriented activities which will educate and entertain the student body.
But so far, Hill Communications shows limited progress in the transformation of MayFest to an engaging student event that can compete with MayFest’s widely popular block parties.
The events, as proposed, are overly vague. To make sweeping changes and drastically increase student participation to any event, Hill Communications needed to be polished and decisive.
The events, speakers and times should already have been determined, and they should have been announced simultaneously with a sophisticated advertising campaign. Instead we are left with a planned breakfast, a possible speaker who’s a musician and little other specifics.
This very clearly represents another glaring disconnect between what SU says, what SU does and its actual commitment to its academic mission.
The university says it is going green, but constructs a Life Sciences building that isn’t green certified. The University says it supports engaging academic programs through massive amounts of resources invested in its Scholarship in Action campaign but puts no planning or focus into an event that demonstrates and encourages that very scholarship.
To mobilize the student body away from Euclid Avenue and toward lectures and activities, there needs to a lure above drinking. And quasi-planned events based off game shows and unnamed keynote speakers will not be adequate.
The SU Showcase disorganization represents a larger problem: Before any campus wide academic program can be successful, SU needs to look at itself and its values. A university that only gives lip service to academic engagement will receive the same in return from its students.
