The Justice

The programming experience I've had until now reflects a practical, not ideological, bent when club leaders plan events. They assume they'll need food as a draw and that students won't be interested in noncatered events. Even attempting to discuss issues that might be of potential interest to members is considered a foregone impossibility because club leaders assume students need spectacle to be entertained.

Generally, the ICC throws large celebrations or puts on event nights, and I'm worried that that's all it has become associated with for the rest of campus. To most people the ICC is known for events like MELA, Culture X, K-Night or SKIN, which are all lengthy shows involving student performance and dance.

These are fun celebrations, certainly, but they do not actually involve students talking to one another. They are not interactive and do not require students to even think about what they are seeing. What would the parallel for American culture be-square dancing? Swing dancing? Break dancing? When framed within our culture, it seems absurd that all of it can be reduced to a performance a mere three minutes long.

Of course, I am aware that there are groups in the ICC that do exist for discussion's sake. Those groups are successful at what they do, but they also cater to a small subset of dedicated students. The rest of campus still perceives the ICC to be mostly concerned with glitzy festivities.

I realize that everything I've discussed so far is merely my perception of the situation, colored by the particular organizations in which I've worked. I do value the ICC's role as a community and social space, and I don't want to devalue what its members do. However, the organization's current campus role seems shamefully limited. I wish it could truly address issues that can't be resolved by simply distributing food on paper plates. The ICC needs to stand for more than "Interesting Cooking Club."

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