Take 15 minutes for humility


It doesn’t make any sense to me why all I hear around here is negative thoughts. I have never heard so many disheartening things than what I have heard in the last six months. Recently, I finally decided to start participating on campus, trying to get involved, but all I got was the same old story: “Nobody cares around here.” “You won’t find five people that care about this campus.” “No one goes to university events.” Good grief, Charlie Brown!

I care about this school, and I care about the people who go here. I have taken a lot of lumps on the head since I stepped on campus for the first time, but here I am, speaking to you, asking for your help. I want to work with you to make a difference.

We can start by building on some of the positive hopes for our future we already have. We have a brand new football coach who has won two straight national championships. Write him an e-mail and tell him that you will attend football games and cheer on the team. Wish him the best of luck. Tell your cross country team, gymnastics team, volleyball team, wrestling team, track team, soccer team, field hockey team and every other CMU team, no matter who they are, that you support them and will attend their games to from now on. Let’s tell them we care and that we have pride in them.

Attend one of the many events that On The Fly, Program Board and University Events put on. There are so many great plays, speakers and just plain entertaining acts that are offering you an alternative to the partying. It is OK to attend cultural events.

We have great teachers that need our help so we can work with one another to develop great relationships that make everyone feel like they are achieving something. We have a brand new Health Professions Building, which is absolutely beautiful. Take the time out to tour it and see how nice it is. We have great programs such as teaching and physical therapy, which are some of the best in the state. We have great foundations for our future in business programs, music programs, engineering programs and countless others which are too many to name.

We have great student organizations around here that need your help to get stronger so they can build momentum to make a difference. If half of our students joined at least one club or attended one event on a regular basis, then we would be booming in terms of participation. I encourage you to find something that you like to do. If there isn’t anything already that you like to do, have the motivation to start your own club or group on campus. Anyone can do it. It is that simple.

Start getting angry about what you don’t like at our school. Take an extra 15 minutes out of your week to write an e-mail to the administration about something that you think stinks. Take 15 minutes out of your week to e-mail CM Life and tell them what kind of stories YOU want to read about. Take 15 minutes out of your week to visit your teacher’s office hours and get to know them a little better than you would in the classroom. If even half of our 19,000 students take 15 minutes out of their week to make a difference, that is 141 and a half hours a week we can spend on helping change things for the better. I challenge you to make a difference.

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