Why do student organizations insist on giving irrelevant responses to legitimate questions raised by students? This past week, Carolyn Pippen wrote a letter voicing her concern about the lack of student participation at this year’s Commodore Quake. The Music Group of the Vanderbilt Programming Board was courteous enough to give her a response. However, instead of directly addressing the issue of student performance, they danced around it and then proceeded to use the letter as an opportunity to hype Quake as an event catered to the student body. Their strategy was to simply equate student participation with student attendance and then proceed to let everyone know what a great idea a $15 grandstand seat would be. And by the way, some Blair students are performing, so check your facts, concerned letter-writers. I would have been much more impressed by an up-front answer such as this: “After careful consideration, The Music Group decided that it could provide a better entertainment experience by dedicating the Quake stage solely to professional performers with a wide range of appeal. Our goal is to make Quake into more of a concert, like a fall equivalent to Rites of Spring. If you’d like to see student organizations perform, perhaps you should check out our other Homecoming events.” Question answered, problem solved. The Music Group isn’t the only culprit, though. A few weeks back, the Hustler Editorial Board made note of the partisan rhetoric used to promote the All-American Block Party. In response, we got two nice, formulaic letters from the College Democrats and Republicans spouting off meaningless drivel like “It is up to us to unify our country once again and allow our love for what this country represents to shine through for the world to see.” (I thought this was a university newspaper, not a Miss Teen America pageant.) Both letters chose to ignore the issue of politically slanted rhetoric and instead used it as an excuse to shamelessly plug their event. Readers of the Hustler can identify BS when they see it – we’re college students, it’s what we do. If you’re going to respond to someone’s opinion, do so in a meaningful way. Nurture public discourse instead of crushing it under the boot heel of public relations nonsense and cautious avoidance.