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Shyam Kulkarni

For his spring break, my brother eschewed traditional spring break locations such as Tijuana, Florida and Anchorage, Alaska, in favor of visiting me in Terre Haute. As I myself have been around the city long enough to pick up the smell, I was wondering what the impressions of a Delawarean (that's what we call people from Delaware, all six of them) would be.
Thus, instead of a normal column where I talk about my opinions on something, I'm reporting on the first impressions of someone from an East Coast college town. Given our concerns with enrollment, I thought it would be interesting to see what a person's first impressions of campus would be.
First I asked him what he thought about the town and campus. He said that, while Terre Haute seemed "small-townish and dusty," the campus was lovely because of things like the fountain and the statues.
There were many other nice things my brother had to say about campus. He enjoyed the Commons in the HMSU. Additionally, my brother was impressed by the theater department's production of the "Great American Trailer Park Musical," and was impressed that the department would have the funds to put on a show that elaborate.
Interestingly enough, my brother's comments also put to bed one of the biggest myths about Terre Haute, that there is nothing around here to do for college students. While conceding that he couldn't go watch a musical every night, he argued that Terre Haute has enough bars and entertainment that college students should be able to have as much fun here as they would anywhere else.
However, despite all the nice things he had to say about ISU and Terre Haute, he did note some things that the school could do to improve itself. Noting how Terre Haute is not really a city geared toward pedestrians, he came out in full support of the proposed bus initiative, and also said that it was odd to be on a campus in which the buildings did not all have proper nouns attached to them. Conversely, while he was also impressed with theater's budget, he said that from walking through the Science Building, he got the impression that the hard sciences at ISU were under funded.
All in all, the conversation I had with my brother made me feel that Terre Haute definitely has things to offer students at ISU, and that ISU has no reason to feel like it's a second rate school.
Perhaps more than anything else, the biggest thing that we need to change to make Terre Haute a better place is going to be our attitudes. The university has done a great job at making this place eye catching, even if it may not be perfect to most of us. If there is anything second rate about ISU, it is the way we view it.
Shyam Kulkarni is a graduate student in political science. He can be reached at skulkarni2@indstate.edu

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