The bulletin board at the entrance of Valentine is constantly plastered with advertisements for erudite events on campus ranging from speakers about philosophy to panels about drug abuse. However, how many of your friends and roommates attend these events? More importantly, how many of these events have you attended in the past week, month or year?

If you're like most Amherst College students, you haven't patronized many of these lectures or panels, beyond the big-name speakers (Ann Coulter, anyone?) and the ones your professors referred to as "mandatory." At the same time, you may have complained, as many students do, about the events that clubs and organizations do offer-why does SoCo get so much money, isn't Margaret Cho a poor replacement for a spring concert?; the formal costs way too much, etc.

Apathy permeates most of the non-curricular events on this campus, and this apathy is a serious problem. Even student organizations that co-sponsor events often do not even send a representative to attend the events they have helped pay for. We are spending $40,000 per year to get an elite education, but most of us are limiting this education to the classroom. We're only able to go to such free events during our Amherst careers; after Amherst, in all likelihood, we will have to travel and/or pay for the opportunities that are free to us while we are here.

The complaints and the lack of attendance are, to use a cliché, an example of the sense of entitlement that many Amherst students seem to possess. You too were once a wide-eyed pre-frosh who decided to come to the College not only for the Antonio's and the Wings or the two weekends of good weather a year, but for the intellectual experience as well. It's a shame that it takes free food to attract so many people to events that should be well-attended on the basis of their content alone.

We understand that students are busy and that no one can attend every campus event. And certainly, attending purely out of a sense of guilt at the expenditure of your Amherst tuition wouldn't be a good reason to go (although, perhaps better than apathy).

Yet, that said, we encourage students to take full advantage of the wonderful, free lectures and activities that occur almost daily on this campus. If you are a senior, your days here are numbered, as are the opportunities proffered to you as a result of your presence on this elite campus. But, there are still a few events left this semester. And if you're not a senior, you should make sure you spend the next few years of your life enjoying the privileges of this campus. A great portion of your education can be achieved outside of the classroom, provided you engage in the campus' great resources.