I applaud the editors for raising their concerns about ACPB's annual Spring Concert. The failure of ACPB to bring the student body's most requested performers exposes two important problems. The first, quite obviously, is the failure of ACPB and its cousin, SoCo, to organize events. For example, Screw Your Roommate TAP was this past weekend, but the publicity for the event was not evident until a few days prior. How are students supposed to attend SCREW if students weren't given enough time to get "Screwed" in the first place? The last-minute approach has plagued ACPB's voting system as well. Rather than waiting until December to hold voting, ACPB needs to hold the initial vote in the first few weeks of school. It should spend a month determining which of those artists will be available, then hold a run-off vote among the interesting and available artists. An early vote will not equate to more work for ACPB members, but it will raise the chances of bringing quality acts to campus. Members of the AAS should actively push ACPB to get a head start on next year's Spring Concert-and all the programs it wishes to hold on campus. If the AAS doesn't force ACPB to get its act together, who will?

Maybe that is the problem. In spite of the blame that ACPB and the AAS rightly share, the apathy-or is it laziness?-among students and publications is the true cause of our fast-approaching springtime woes. Unfortunately, most Amherst College students possess an uncanny allergy towards expressing views about most college-related issues. Casual discussions among good friends, close relations and anonymous Daily Jolters are the only real exceptions. The Jolt is fabulous fun, but newspapers and magazines on campus are out there. Posters and fliers-like the BSU's response to The Indicator's Report Card joke(s)-are also great ways to cause a ruckus. And cause a ruckus we should. Whether it's about Spring Concert, the new game room, or the consistently poor ventilation in the Valentine atrium, we as a student body should make a conscious effort to embrace traditional forms of communication to voice our opinions. The members of campus publications, in particular those from The Amherst Student, should make a better effort to find, investigate, and report on stories actually discussed by students, not merely spoon-fed by the administration or the weekly bulletin. Hopefully, these improvements will help to keep organizations like ACPB, SoCo and even the AAS in check.

Joshua Levenson '07