As students it is so easy to develop tunnel vision by only focusing on our classes and spending time with friends; however, we neglect our other responsibilities as students.

If we do not pay attention to our administration’s plans and actions, we could be left voiceless.

To avoid being overlooked or having our perspectives excluded, we have to stay informed, whether that is reading the university’s newsletters, reading press releases or attending student government meetings.

President Glassman will state several iniatives he wants to accomplish for this year during the annual State of the University Address at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday Sept. 7th in the Doudna Fine Arts Center Dvorak Hall.

There will be approximately nine initiatives explained during the speech, with seven initiatives on non-academic goals and two academic related goals.

The purpose of the speech is to inform the university of the president’s vision for the remainder of the year, as well as his preparations for upcoming years.

The presentation is open for students, so why not attend and listen to the President’s proposals?

After sitting in lectures all day, the sound of another presentation is probably not as appealing as walking to your room to take a nap, but honestly the information will impact you in some capacity.

Especially with the unprecedented budget crisis Illinois universities experienced last year, it would be interesting to learn how the president plans to navigate through the year with a limited state budget.

Face it: we will inevitably play a game of telephone learning about the initiatives after people have narrated, paraphrased and transformed the message.

Why not, as a student body, attend the presentation to hear the information from the most reliable source, the president himself?

I believe as students we assume that speeches, forum, discussions and talks centered on administration concerns are for faculty and staff only, but this not the case.

The terminology used and the format of the presentation will probably lend itself to professors, but this does not mean we should not put forth any effort.

As students our goal is to learn new things both inside and outside the classroom and the way we learn is by actively participating.

We as a university pride ourselves on having school pride, being real Panthers and bleeding blue. What better way for students to show their school spirit than to stay informed about every aspect of their campus?