Ames is like a ghost town in the summer. There’s something rather surreal about being here during a time when the ISU population has rapidly diminished with only a handful of students milling about the usual Ames residents. It makes you think about how much of a force and influence those same students could be if they would actually vote in large blocks.

But now, there’s no waiting anywhere. Parking spaces? No problem. Don’t worry about too many summer blockbusters (if they actually come here) selling out and you being stuck renting a 99-cent special. There aren’t even the “Phantom Menace” geeks crowding outside Movies 12 to contend with this season.

But the city of Ames seeming Twilight Zone-esqe, combined with the number of ISU students who bid adieu to Cyclone Country just a few weeks ago, it brings to mind what has lately been a hot topic: trying to get Iowa kids to stay in Iowa.

It seems they’re leaving in droves, causing so much tension about the future of the state’s youth population that Gov. Tom Vilsack is all but promising fruit baskets to those who decide to stay in the corn belt.

The Des Moines Register recently began running a multipart series on why Iowa college kids are fleeing the state as soon as they get their diploma in hand. According to that paper’s numbers, half of graduates are planning to move to another state.

According to the same series, only 26 percent of Iowa students are planning to start their careers in Iowa. Even if they were presented with similar job offers, say one in Iowa City vs. one in New York City, if the salaries were virtually the same, a majority of the poll respondents said they would rather risk a higher crime rate in NYC instead of a boring night life in the Midwest.

I suppose to some, those numbers are shocking. But to many college students, including me, they conjure up tempting images. Namely those of when we’re going to graduate and move on to those better places.

I’m not trying to sound like a Bruce Springsteen song or a rebellious pre-teen bemoaning the lack of things to do in Iowa. But, hey, there’s really not that much to do.

Sure, Iowa has a low crime rate, and it has a good education system, despite recent scares from the Legislature to cut public universities’ funding.

Iowa’s also boring and more than slightly repressive.

It comes as little surprise that most of the major metropolitan area’s students said they’d rather move to, whether it was on a grand scale like New York City or smaller potatoes like Madison, Wis., were cities that welcomed a more liberal sort of atmosphere. And by liberal, no, I’m not talking politics. It often seems like there’s little to do in this state and not many opportunities to move up.

The whole issue centers around the very culture of this state. To look at it in a different way, take the “ISU student-run” celebration Veishea. Wendell Mosby, a presidential candidate for the Government of the Student Body, made a good point during one of the executive debates when he said something to the effect of that the culture of this seemingly isolated chunk of the country is somewhat responsible for the attitude that there’s nothing better for kids to do than get loaded. That’s not true, but can you blame them for believing that?

Even living in Ames year-round leads to this feeling of repression. The ISU administration doesn’t do an effective job of communicating with students, there’s little for the majority of ISU students to do except go to the bars (read: drink), and for those who are underage, there’s even less.

As far as what to do to keep college kids in Iowa, there’s no easy answer. The fact is those who are central to the state’s main concerns, i.e. agriculture and related industries, education, etc. will probably stay close to home. For the rest, of course they’re going to leave. You can’t tell a performing arts major to stick around Iowa and watch for great dinner theater opportunities.

Young people are always going to yearn to travel where there’s more excitement and more adventure. Especially if they’ve been deprived of it until now.

Nobody should be flipping their lid about those who are planning to leave the state — college students will inevitably be leaving anyway. The more productive thing to do would be to worry about improving the quality of life for residents who intend to stay here.

Yes, Iowa’s a great state — for old people. For the rest of us, life will start after graduation.

---

Kate Kompas is a junior in journalism and mass communication. She is editor in chief of the Daily.