IF YOU missed the Lighting of the Lawn last night to study, you missed a token of why the University has been able to distinguish itself among other colleges. Last year, during my first Lighting of the Lawn, I looked at the number of lights that were strung around a few columns on the Lawn and was unimpressed. Having hung Christmas lights for the past 10 years with my father, who has practically earned a Ph.D. in exterior illumination, I thought the display was lacking.
What I failed to understand was how much more substance there is to the Lighting of the Lawn ceremony than just the lights themselves. After thousands of students emerged from studying to congregate on the Lawn last night, small lights kindled excitement from fatigue, ignited scholarship and camaraderie, and illuminated frozen uncertainties with truth. Although light often symbolizes virtue and goodness, what I gleaned from last night is a success that differentiates the University from any other institution.
The skeptics claim that our traditions are overbearing, exclusive or even pompous. I argue that rituals like yesterday's Lighting of the Lawn bring our community together and foster unbridled school spirit. Traditions such as student self-governance shift many responsibilities, including last night's student-run ceremonies, to the very people who benefit most from them.
At what other school do the outcomes of so many events depend solely upon the students and the student organizations backing them? Where else in the world do you see the kind of synergy among different organizations that Thursday night represented, without some monetary grease?
From the organization of the poetry reading to the a capella concerts, our student body is special insofar as it has the distinct ability to take the initiative. During the past few weeks, students have volunteered to sponsor additional columns of lights to be lit on the Lawn to benefit the Coalition Assisting Residents in Emergency Situations (CARES) program. And students have pressed for the successful transition to more energy-efficient LED lights.
Some may say the student ambitions I have noted also create divisions among the community. The argument is that the same people who get elected to one post often are in a better position to take another leadership position within our student self-governed universe.
There are no guarantees that these divisions would not occur in other schools. All else held constant, the gains in school spirit resulting from student-run events outweigh the effect of petty divisions because, in most cases, traditions such as the Lighting of the Lawn incorporate the whole community, overshadowing the politics of self-governance. Certainly some individuals may have been deemed by their peers to lack the talent necessary to be part of an a capella group, but they are not excluded from getting involved with something for which they are a better fit.
I had a conversation regarding the benefits and drawbacks of the student-run system with Dean of Students Allen Groves, who said, "There's a natural tendency for students who are on Honor or UJC [the University Judiciary Committee], for example, to spend large amounts of time with other student leaders, but in the end, the system will work." Groves also pointed out that administrators "could make a lot of these decisions much quicker, but on the other hand, [the students] would learn nothing in the process."
If you are a first-year student and missed the ceremonies, I do hope you make time to attend Lighting of the Lawn during your next three years. It may not be the event where you realize the magnificence of the student-conducted symphony, but you will remember the night more than your introductory chemistry assignment. To an outsider strolling through the Academical Village, the twinkling addition to the Lawn will certainly be charming, but without the student-run orchestra, the lights probably would not shine so brightly.
Andrew Kouri's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at a.kouri@cavalierdaily.com.
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