IU disappoints lecture crowd with broken promises

This past weekend was homecoming, and I spent Friday night and Saturday morning at IU.

I probably should expect some letters saying "Shawn, you sold out. The homecoming court should get together and beat you for having committed such a trespass." But before you get on your computers and e-mail my editor, know that I went to IU because one of my favorite directors, Kevin Smith, held a lecture and Q/A session in IU's auditorium.

For those who aren't familiar, Smith has written such noble films as "Mallrats" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" as well as "Chasing Amy," "Dogma" and "Clerks." Smith plays the tail of the Jay and Silent Bob tandem in all of the said flicks.

Smith is a cult favorite, so the event quickly sold out to IU students. So I did what any respectable person would do, contacted every female IU student I knew and offered my body in exchange for tickets. Sadly, most declined my offer, and the rest counter-offered; providing me the tickets as long as I'd promise to never volunteer my body to anyone ever again. Fortunately enough, my roommate scored some tickets (I can't comment on his methods), so I lucked out.

With the ticket situation handled, my roommate and I traveled to Bloomington to hear Silent Bob speak.

There is something you have to understand about Bloomington. I have heard rumors that IU has some of the prettiest girls in the nation, and one can have much more fun at IU than at Purdue. I have found that both rumors are mere fabrications.

I'll take the Pepsi challenge, our girls versus the IU girls, any day of the week. Judging purely superficially (which I have an uncanny talent for), our girls are just as beautiful as their Hoosier counterparts. The only difference is there are simply more girls at IU — solely numbers. But quality counts for more in my opinion, and still both schools should be envious of USC.

As for the amount of fun you can have, well, we all know this columnist's dismal outlook on West Lafayette. But if you could imagine a place worse than West Lafayette in your head, then you are picturing Bloomington.

In fact, I have heard the school being described as nothing more than "a trade school for the middle class." Now these are not my words, but, after visiting a few times and observing, I would be hard pressed to make an argument against that claim.

So now you understand why I was not very excited to be in Bloomington, however, I was extremely hyped to hear Kevin Smith speak.

I have some serious problems with IU's organization of the event.

After Smith came out, and the audience settled, it was obvious that this was going to be time well spent. He promised to stay as long as needed to answer questions for as long as students were willing to stick around and ask. Everyone was pleased because when Smith spoke at Cornell University he was on stage from 8:30 p.m. till 3:30 in the morning. So the night was as promising as ever.

Smith stood there as if he were Yoda, preaching to a group of 3,200 young Jedi Knights. That was until he started cracking jokes and telling hysterical stories of he and Jason Mewes. It was all very entertaining.

The Q/A session began after a short introductory part from Smith. There were two microphones in the aisles of the auditorium, each with a line where members could wait to ask Smith a question.

There were several interruptions during the questioning that nearly ruined the evening.

IU took for granted that Smith's appearances are primarily Q/A events. It was supposed to be a chance for fans to get to know Smith better, and for Smith to gain a little more intimacy with his fans. However, IU was promising an autograph signing period after the show. The monotony of autograph signing is completely against the spirit of the event, and 3,000 autographs are a lot to sign — PUCC gets angry if you print out more than 10 copies of a paper at one time.

Throughout the show there were reports of "yes, there will be a signing period," followed by, "there will be no signing period," followed by "yes" then "no" and so on. It was distracting.

There ended up being no signing period.

But the communication between the staff and the congregation wasn’t what bothered me the most. The worst part of the event was the time restraints. IU rudely kicked Smith off at midnight, breaking the promise Smith made at the beginning of the show. The auditorium was still packed with nearly every seat taken and two endless lines of question-filled students.

The students, the speaker and myself were all left very disappointed after the session.

This whole ordeal just added to my displeasure with Indiana University.

I hope that Purdue can soon attract a speaker as notable as Kevin Smith, who would spark student interest. I also hope that when it happens, it will be promoted professionally, with accurate information.

Shawn McGann is a senior in the School of Technology. Shawn likes IU as much as he likes kids who don't fear and respect escalators. He can be e-mailed at opinions@purdueexponent.org.

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