DSU Welfare has today launched a new awareness campaign, this
time against apathy, described on one anonymous poster, said to be
the trigger for the campaign, as 'the most cowardly of
killers'
. The campaign against apathy will take place over
the next two weeks, and will include beer mats, posters, and other
publicity yet to be released.
DSU Welfare said that the campaign, which had been planned quickly over only ten days due to the urgency of the problem, was hoped to be a success in raising awareness of the dangers of apathy. In a statement, DSU officers said
Apathy is often regarded as a safe option by many students, but it can in some extreme cases be fatal. This is a rarely known fact, and had the anonymous poster not been placed, the chances are that we'd never have heard of it either. We hope that this campaign will at least raise some awareness of the issues, and perhaps change a few people's lifestyle.
Some DSU officers are said to be, at least privately, sceptical
of the campaigns likely chance of success. One, who did not wish
to be named for fear of seeming negative, said 'The problem with
this campaign is that it won't reach the people who need it
most'
, although did also add 'However, it might at least help those who haven't yet become so apathetic they don't read posters'
.
Statistics recently released show that this percentage may be as low as 5% of the student population, and so Finance and Services is due to debate whether funding for the campaign should be provided. Two members of Finance and Services, who have called for an emergency meeting of the committee, said that
We really don't see the point in spending union money on a campaign that won't work anyway because no-one can be bothered to support it. There are too many other spending priorities for us that won't do anything useful either, but have greater student support. SnF might be able to find the money, I suppose.....No, SnF, not FnS....what do you mean, what's the difference? The name, obviously.
Points raised that the number of committees with similar names, roughly similar purposes, but that people claim to be completely different, may be aiding apathy have not yet been answered.