FIU sure has a lot to be proud of, just check out its new achievements board at http://news.fiu.edu. Some key ones to mention: top 100 business school, one of the largest public universities in America, and a brand new collegiate-style logo to boot (which I love, by the way).

However, there is one thing missing in that list of achievements: the respect of the FIU student body.

It's hard being reminded of the bureaucracy, the politics, and the closed doors all around campus. I hate thinking that this is the university I once dreamt of going to. I hate hearing, "Welcome to FIU," whenever I have a complaint about the way things are run. I hate knowing I've caught myself saying that phrase to others more than once.

The administration can manufacture the image it wants, but the administration must work for the students, not for itself, in order to make that image a reality.

It makes me wonder: does anyone in the higher-ups care about the students? Unfortunately, if they do, it is not apparent. People have tried to make them care – or at least show it – but, too often, faculty and staff are afraid to come forward and talk, and the students’ voice is small, because, when an administration treats its student body like trash, it's students will never care.

President Maidique certainly hasn't earned the respect of the University's student body, which is apparent in the online rallying against the renaming of University Park Campus in his honor. Although he was the University's leader during the period of most of FIU's growth, I've met many who feel like they can't credit Madique for it. Why? Because Maidique, along with his administration, built the structure with no foundation, an image with no basis.

Fortunately, people are finally starting to look at what's happening here. The students are craving to have that school pride, and they are realizing that, in order to be proud of FIU, things must first change.

When students expressed their support for President-delegate Mark Rosenberg, they called for change, just like they're doing rallying against the naming of the Modesto A. Maidique Campus along with the cutting of the cheerleading program.

This student passion is something new for FIU: the student body has been notorious for being known as apathetic, disconnected. Now that this is changing, it's exactly what will make FIU the dream institution the administration keeps talking about.

Until there's a shakeup on the fifth floor of Primera Casa (where administration is housed), and we get people in there who fight for the students, people's jobs will be at risk, because I predict a future where students will no longer stay silent and students will demand from their school the attention and care they deserve.