Just like any other OU student, I am in and out of Baker Center at least five times a day. Recently, I’ve noticed an empty “yOUr Umbrella” container at both the top and bottom of Baker.
I learned there are virtually no safeguards to ensure that students return university property, so in essence, my tuition dollars spewed out $2,000 worth of umbrellas with only the optimism of honesty to ensure their return. I laugh about the program’s impracticality with friends, professors and pretty much anyone who reads The Post. The more I laugh about it, the more alert I am to the program in it of itself, but really I think that it sends a larger message about higher education and government in general.
Oftentimes, government departments have a budget, and when they reach the end of the year they decide to flush down the extra cash in order to simply do something with the money. They spend it on dumb things like $2,000 worth of umbrellas for students who have no intention of returning them. Meanwhile, they could be focusing on thrift and saving the money for future investments.
Some might think it is a stretch to compare the umbrella issue to a larger government-spending problem, but it really isn’t. Right now the government is using our money (either through tax dollars or tuition) to buy “stuff” for people, simply because the money exists. This is the same mentality in Washington where our leaders lose sight that government is only a temporary steward of other people’s money.
It is not the job of this university to provide umbrellas to anyone. It is the job of this university to educate people that stealing is wrong, and it is their responsibility to buy a raincoat.
Colton Henson is a senior studying political science and history.
