College of DuPage has become a consistent media staple over the past 2 years, most of the news revolving around the school being negative. In the past year, the college gained three new, controversial, board of trustee members, our college president was fired, our school received a late-night bomb threat, our board chairwoman resigned without warning and our college was put on probation by the agency that grants it accreditation.

Sounds like a lot, right?  It is.

The amount of breaking news on COD’s campus has been close to unbelievable and easily holds its own next to national campus scandals like the protests at Mizzou. It’s this that makes today’s COD students more important than ever; as a student, you have a voice in all of this.

A lot of you may be planning on attending COD only to take your classes and transfer out as smoothly as possible. You may only reside on campus a few days a week, but don’t let the small amount of hours spent here convince you that your input on these issues doesn’t matter.

COD is a college. Without us students, it wouldn’t exist. It leaves our newspaper staff wondering why, in all of this, students have failed to speak up and pay attention to the history-making conflicts housed in their own campus “living room.”

My advice to all COD students, new or returning, is to jump into the news here. Pay attention to what’s going on around you. Though these issues may not matter in the classroom, they do matter to the future of the college and possibly, your own.

In the next few semesters, we will report back to the Higher Learning Commission, our accreditation agency. If the college fails to meet their standards, it may find itself without accreditation, something that would be devastating to COD’s reputation and each student who wishes to transfer.

The college will appoint a new president who will hold the power to cancel classes and make college-wide changes.

You have so many ways to state your opinion on these issues and every upcoming change. You have a Student Body President, Joe Stahl, Student Body Vice President, Miguel Hernandez and Student Trustee, Gloria Roark, who care about accurately representing your opinions. You have the ability to speak at board meetings on-campus. You also have a student newspaper that promises to get your voices heard as long as you speak up.