The Undergraduate Student Government's (USG) took action at last Tuesday's meeting to protect the privacy rights of students on campus.

Unfortunately, the issue at which they took aim is not really an issue at all.

The USG Senate voted to establish a committee of students to investigate and give feedback on the policies with which the university operates surveillance cameras across campus. They want to know where the cameras are so that students know when they are being watched.

The move is noble, yet futile. Cameras on campus are installed for security purposes, so a disclosure of where they are would only mean that students who cause the problems on campus would know where to go so they would not be caught. Students going about their daily business would still be observed, while criminals would know where they could go so they would not get caught. Daily business also brings up another point. These cameras are in public places. The debate over surveillance cameras on Beaver Avenue during the last several years focused on those cameras being focused in the direction of balconies and windows as their lenses were aimed down the street. But if the last year has shown that simple surveillance cameras are not the intrusive eye that everyone feared. One could not even pick up a clear description of an RV that brought it crashing to the ground. The privacy issue is not one, because everyone can see people in public places. What should it matter if someone videotapes those actions? Also, anywhere else people go, he or she is being watched by cameras. Restaurants, shopping malls, retail giants -- they all have security cameras rolling while people are going about their business. People have come to accept this, right or wrong, so why it is such an issue on a campus where everyone cries out for greater safety. There is a legitimate fear with security cameras -- that they are watching in dorm rooms and bathrooms. This, however, is not true, as such a situation is a lawsuit waiting to happen, and even if such cameras were installed, anyone in a dorm with a six pack in the mini-fridge would be out of luck already. And that has not happened.

It is commendable that USG is doing something they think students are worried about. But are students worried? USG should instead concentrate on more pressing issues, such as lobbying the administration with the needs of students -- which, by the way, is its purpose. Students need someone shouting at the administration about scheduling problems, about campus crime, about the rising cost of being a student here.

Not about whether a security guard could see students walking to class.