Students ignore the Grand Forks city bus as it drives by. Photo by Chester Beltowski/The Dakota Student.

In my humanities class we read a book called “My Freshman Year” by Rebekah Nathan. This book is about a professor who enrolls in freshman level courses at her own school to take an in-depth look at why the majority of students don’t take full advantage of the opportunities their college provides them with.

After finishing the book, I decided to see for myself just how much UND students take advantage of the opportunities provided here on campus. What I found didn’t surprise me.

Just looking at my own involvement on campus, I’ve noticed the general lack of attendance among members of the clubs I’m a part of. The first organization I’m in has around 50 registered members listed on its roster. When I attended the first monthly meeting, only 15 people showed up, including those who run the organization.

I understand that there are other, possibly more important things someone might be doing at any given time; I know how college students can get busy. But, I couldn’t help wondering what the point of joining a club is if you aren’t going to show up. It was the only meeting of the month — and it was on a Monday. The whole point of joining is to be involved and to have something extra to spend your time doing.

It’s not just my clubs whose participation is lagging. I also attended  comedian Eric O’Shea’s performance in the Loading Dock, and attendance there was also low. Just about all of my friends at various schools across the country have said they’ve never had comedians perform at their schools and were quite jealous of the amount of free music and comedy events we have here at UND — they were surprised to hear that not many people even go to our events.

The same goes for just about everything else here that involves being present in a specific location and time. Hardly anyone attends the dorm events, is employed or even rides the campus shuttles. I also was invited to attend a “Chef’s dinner” with President Kelley a while back, and of the 50 people who had respond, maybe 20 showed up, which was a shame because the food was delicious. When free food can’t attract college students, there’s a problem.

In her book, Nathan discusses how at her school students generally don’t take full advantage of the resources their school provides, such as the writing center, talking to professors and not completing assignments for classes. Nathan describes being, “at a ‘mandatory’ hall meeting at which seven people on the wing showed.” This seems to be the common theme among events such as this that are supposed to give something for students to do.

Honestly, I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to get as much assistance as possible in college. I attempt to utilize the writing center, always ask what ever questions and participate in just about all of my organizations’ meetings thus far. Being fully involved in my organizations has had a positive effect on my GPA and the general college experience I’ve had at UND so far.

Dusk Crescenzo is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at dusk.crescenzo@my.und.edu.