We had to do it. The gauntlet had been thrown. We just had to investigate, when Daily opinion writer Brian Stillman recently asked, ” … just how important is all the artwork on campus to the typical ISU student? I would guess that, other than the occasional art history major, most students do not even realize that most of it is on our campus. I imagine that if you took a poll of students and asked them if all the artwork on campus was worth 37 grand, the answer would probably be a resounding no.” Here at the ISU Alumni Association, we correspond regularly with thousands of alumni through an electronic newsletter, so we asked them how they felt about art on campus when they were students. The poll was answered by 312 alumni and showed that 45.5 percent answered that when they were students at Iowa State they believed that campus art was both essential and valuable; 47.8 percent responded that they appreciated the art, but were unaware of its value. Only 6.7 percent responded that they didn’t pay any attention to the art, and were unaware of either its intrinsic or monetary value. Hardly the resounding “no” that Mr. Stillman predicted.It’s possible, I suppose, that today’s students are a lot different from yesterday’s. But I don’t think so. Karol Crosbie

Editor

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ISU Alumni Association