VIEWS TO THE WORLD: Relaxation leaves students in the dark

Ball State is admittedly a slow campus on the weekends. This Labor Day weekend, sidewalks were especially bare, with students either at home for the weekend or staying indoors to catch up on their favorite reality TV episode.

Many students like to take the days to relax. Perhaps the laziness of the day infiltrated students in regards to world events.

This past week, I interviewed students about what they consider to be important world news and how these things affect students at Ball State. Their responses were lackluster, and I found it extremely difficult to find students who even had opinions on anything involving world issues.

Fortunately, there were a few students who had some idea that there was a world outside Muncie.

One such student was Amber Spain, a freshman criminology and psychology double major. Spain identified the issues she believed to be important in world events: "The hurricane, the floods in Pakistan and the miners in Chili." But she said she didn't believe that any of these affected her life.

Dan Russo, a freshman architecture major, was more specific with his interest. He identified the wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East as the most important issues in U.S. foreign policy.

"I think it was a good strategy," Russo said in regard to the movement of troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.

To achieve appropriate goals in Afghanistan, Russo said he expects combat situations for another three to five years.

"I think we need to work with their culture, rather than against it, and if we do that, we will be successful," he said.

Kyle Connelly identified the current economic situation as the most important thing in the world but also mentioned the war as another issue.

It's impacting my family," Connelly said about the economy. "I know a lot of people who were affected by the economic downturn."

Connelly was not concerned with his personal career prospects but said he was concerned for his parents.

Aaron Howard, a senior graphic arts management major, identified the oil spill in the Gulf as the most important issue.

I asked Howard about what was most affected by the spill.

"The ecosystem, and then the loss of jobs in the gulf," he answered. "A lot of things can get tied into it. They go hand in hand."

While I understand college is a time to drink beer or find a lifelong mate, some silly people seem to think college is a time to learn about yourself and your place in the world. If your place in the world is to remain at the bottom of a beer bong, you may not need this advice.

But for the rest of you aspiring college students, pay attention. Knowing what is going on in the world might not make you happy all the time — news can be a real bummer — but it does keep you informed. It gives you an opportunity to enrich your life and maybe even someone else's.

Read a newspaper cover, if not the whole thing. Open a Google news search and scan the article titles. Read a weekly magazine. Subscribe to a news-related Twitter account — you can follow us at @bsudailynews for local stories. Or do the laziest version of information gathering and watch a TV news program.

Please keep yourself informed about what's going on in the world. We're college students, and pretty soon we'll be running this world.