I look around the student populace of Binghamton University, and what do I notice? Is it our overwhelmingly large Asian and Jewish demographics that stick out? Well yes, but that’s not quite what I’m gearing my attention toward.

Could it be our great school camaraderie, which keeps us together through thick and thin? Obviously it couldn’t be this one. If none of these characteristics is the trait that I find most defining of the great Bearcats, what is the feature most pervasive among our general student body?

The only thing I see ‘ and this may sound a bit paradoxical ‘ is widespread self’interested apathy.

Some of you might be wondering if I’m smoking that funny stuff. What possibly could I mean by such an absurd term?

Let me explain: I get the inclination that students are simply ‘using’ Binghamton as a stepping stone to the Big Four, law and med schools, and have no loyalty to this University. That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with pre-professional students or those aspiring to work in corporate accounting, but this focus seems to have metamorphosed into a widespread campus apathy.

Perhaps I’m just another cynic, but I’m disgusted by the way students have allowed things to pass, such as allowing the Student Association to be run like a two-branch oligarchy.

My contention begins with just a quick question for all you political science junkies: How many branches of government are outlined within the United States Constitution? Well, you’ve got the executive, the legislative and judicial, right? Here at Binghamton, we only have two!

Either the SA has devised a political structure not even our founding fathers could have conceived, or our student body has become so apathetic that it’s willing to allow our student government to be run by oligarchs, without any judicial oversight. Certainly there are circumstantial reasons that there is no Judicial Board, but do those justifications suffice? I think not. We’re seamlessly allowing constitutional infractions to be decided and quelled by a small committee of Assembly representatives. What happened to good ol’ checks and balances?

With the exception of active environmentalists who are fighting to keep our water clean and end hydraulic fracturing, our campus seems to be unfazed by anything potentially harmful on campus.

Sure we have both College Republicans and College Democrats, but what are they offering in terms of actual campus activism, besides miniature flags and half-assed voter registration drives?

I’d like to see some more voices raised against Binghamton’s absurd New York State University Police. UPD routinely turns this campus into a police state. Last Friday night, just for one small example, police recklessly stopped taxis and harassed students returning from State Street, causing unnecessary commotion.

If you couldn’t tell, these issues hit a nerve for me. I felt even worse this week as I watched students from London participate in such a raw and real way; rather than issuing a tweet, a status update or a public comment, they took to the streets like real activists do, burning effigies and getting mad at the Man.

Perhaps what I’d most like to see from students is participation that doesn’t come forth only when there’s too much cheese on black bean burritos or class interferes with ‘Glee.’