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St. Cloud State University
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Commentary
Lobby Day posters are misleading exaggeration
Published:
Monday, February 10, 2003
In "Bowling for Columbine," the documentary by filmmaker Michael Moore shown on campus this past weekend, Moore touches on a number of topics. One of them is the claim that American society and culture is driven by media-perpetuated fear.
SCSU's Student Government, it seems, has subscribed to this theory in its attempt to attract students to attend this year's Lobby Day at the Minnesota State Capitol.
Most anyone who has walked through campus in the last week -- especially Atwood -- has probably noticed the posters that say, "Your tuition is going up 46 percent. What are you going to do about it?" For any college student, tuition increases are an awful thought -- but imagining tuition increasing almost 50 percent is nothing short of terrifying.
Student Government claims no wrongdoing, however. Yorgan Marcel, an SCSU student who is the state chair of the Minnesota State University Student Association, admitted that the employment of the "46 percent" figure on the posters was a scare tactic, or as he put it, "pulling the alarm."
Did the members of Student Government miss a lesson in ethics?
If the 46 percent increase was one proposal being given serious thought, these posters would be forgivable. Certainly Student Government has its heart in the right place, advocating an interest in state legislative affairs to SCSU students -- those ultimately affected by decisions the Minnesota Legislature makes.
But it is dishonest to create a poster based on a figure that the vice chancellor of finance for MnSCU said was "not a direction being considered or discussed" by MnSCU.
Student Government might have said, "Your tuition could go up as much as 46 percent." It could have made more of an effort to notify students of the importance of this week's Lobby Day through campus media.
Instead, it resorted to scary, misleading statistics emblazoned on a poster.
Student Government should know better.
