There’s no place like home

I am ashamed and embarrassed by this university’s failureto have the best interests of the student body in mind whenallowing George W. Bush and the Republican National Committee tocome to the Hilltop for a political rally. Our campus, our home,was overridden by protestors, police and politicians. Streets wereshut down, and students were engulfed in a sea of non-affiliatedindividuals littering our streets, vendors pedaling t-shirts andthe constant noise of sirens polluting our once-peaceful home.

One of the most obnoxious incidents that arose from thepresident visiting SMU was the closure of Binkley Avenue, mostnotably the section of Binkley with the student apartments. It isridiculous that students were not allowed to go to their apartmentsduring the duration of the political rally. I understand thatGeorge W. Bush is the president of the United States and must beprotected, but with all the security at hand, there should havebeen a plan to accommodate students wanting to get to theirhomes.

This incident is more than a mere annoyance. It is a schoolnight and students have work to do. Many students from the MeadowsSchool of the Arts had rehearsal for upcoming productions, and theyare residents of the Binkley apartments. Once they finished withtheir night’s work at the Owen Fine Arts Center, they wereunable to get to their homes. Students pay an enormous amount ofmoney to live in the apartments and their lives should not bedisrupted by the Republican National Committee’s last minuteattempts to get votes.

Additionally, members of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity spent alarge portion of the night keeping protesters and rallyparticipants off their property, as a large group amassed on thesidewalk facing Moody Coliseum to protest President Bush. They hadvery little help from the security forces on campus helping toprotect their house, and again more students were let down by theschool administration and our police department.

The Republican National Committee rented Moody Coliseum forthis private event. If it was a private event, why did it encroachon the lives and day-to-day activities of the public? I’msure SMU made a nice profit off of this event, and I’m gladthat our trustworthy administration decided that making a quickbuck off the GOP takes precedence over the student body’sright to live and study in their homes.

I am appalled at university president R. Gerald Turner and SMUPolice Chief Mike Snellgrove for not remembering the students thatlive on campus. It must be nice to live in a mansion blocks awayfrom campus where you don’t have to deal with the streetclosures around student housing. There should have been a system inplace to let students get to their homes. Minimizing the disruptionto the student body should have been a priority with the schooladministration when considering allowing this event to occur oncampus, and when President Turner failed to think of this, ourpolice chief should have. Both of these men let us, the studentbody, down last night.

Part of what makes this event so despicable was the fact thatmost of the people in attendance were not even SMU students. A linerunning from the entrance of Moody Coliseum to the footballpractice field was full of people who were definitely too old to begoing to SMU. If it had been an event intended for the student bodyand attended by a large majority of the student body, I couldeasily understand the disruption of normal campus life. Themajority of the student body did not get anything out of this eventbut frustration and distractions.

I am embarrassed that President R. Gerald Turner and the SMUadministration whored our campus out to George W. Bush and theRepublican National Committee without any regard or concern forthe students they have an obligation to protect.

Austin Kilgore is a junior dance major and photo editor ofThe Daily Campus. He may be reached at [email protected].