At the moment I’m writing this — Sunday, April 14 at 3:22 p.m. — we have exactly 12 days of classes left. By the time this column prints, we will be well on our way to a mere 10. Looking back on this time last year, as we packed up brown boxes full of clothes, threw out nine months worth of trash and headed off to the sometimes-horrifying Myrtle Beach to toast to the school year’s end, I think it’s safe to say we had no idea what we were in for the next fall.
From where I stand, here’s this year’s rundown: the infamous Sullivan-Dragas showdown, hurricane days, Playboy’s #1 Party School, the 7 Society’s call to action across Grounds, snow days, hotly debated Honor reforms that were promptly forgotten after the election, boys rush catastrophes promptly followed by hazing catastrophes promptly followed by the ABC crackdown and, most recently, a fake dorm raid.
I still would love for someone to explain how a single Snapchat could set off a school-wide panic attack.
I hate to minimize what went on in the outside world, but, in the life of a University student, that pretty much sums up the 2012-13 school year in terms of major headline news. To the outside world, it’s just a bunch of barely important events. To us, it’s a list loaded with sadness, success, shortcomings, strange climaxes and, quite glaringly, a lot of change in the making.
Heading toward the end of yet another year, it seems we’re trying to prematurely write the end to a very unfinished story. The truth is, as we jaunt off to internships, study abroad opportunities or summer sessions, we leave behind a tangle of loose ends.
The near-death circumstances of two students at fraternity social events will not — and should not — disappear into the archives of history. Nor will the partially enacted Honor reform seamlessly solve our community’s accountability problems. And, until the University fully confronts it, we will most certainly continue to battle the sexual assault and hate crimes that occurred throughout the academic year. Simply put, this year is one that will follow us for a long time.
The University has always been — and hopefully always will be — a community run by and for the students. The faculty can do and say whatever they want, but as we learned this summer, the real engine of change is the student body. It therefore falls on us to figure out how to correct our own shortcomings and call attention to those of others. We have to be open and ready to accept the burden of change.
When I look back at this year, no image better represents this necessary change than the 7 Society banner draped across the columns of Alderman. We Instagrammed, texted and tweeted John Donne’s words, but — I have to ask — do they ever cross our minds five months later?
When your organization hazes new members, when you bear witness to “dishonorable” acts and do nothing, or — worse — when you take part in them yourself, do you ever think about how you’re proving our critics right? Do you realize you’re putting a dent in a community far larger and older than you yourself will ever be?
So, in honor of the work ahead of us, I put the words in front of you here, one last time. I challenge you to write them down, pen to paper, and keep them close to you this summer, next year and beyond. Put them on your wall as a visible reminder of your responsibility as a student here — not only to yourself and to your parents, but also to your 14,640 peers and the hundreds of thousands of others who walked the Lawn before you.
_“No man is an island,
Entire of itself. …
…Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.”
— John Donne (1572-1631)_
For now, as we pack up and move on for the time being, I think it’s only fair we fold over this page in the University’s story and let it rest unfinished for the moment. The right ending will write itself in time.
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