Well, that’s it. Take down the Olympic flags and put away the souvenir mugs?both the Olympic and Paralympic Games are over. And though we may moan about the return to our regularly scheduled lives, for the most part, the U community has emerged triumphant.
However, there is more to take away from this experience than the proud title of “Official Venue of the 2002 Games.” The Olympics provided an interesting study of what makes a community, and the lessons that students, faculty and staff can learn from the past month and a half are more valuable than the most coveted of Olympic Jell-O pins.
Take for instance, student housing?a once desolate dream of new dorms became a reality as the Olympics rapidly approached. Though the original mission was not to force athletes to stay in the unpleasant confines known as “the old dorms,” the result of campus construction was more delightful than expected.
The flashy decor and sweeping angles of Heritage Commons are enough to impress any visitor. However, the dorms’ true test will happen now, when the visitors are long gone. And the takers of this test are U students.
As a writer for the Olympic Record?the newspaper for athletes in the Village?I witnessed the evolution of a cohesive, albeit ephemeral Olympic community.
A week before the Games began, the Olympic Village was replete with volunteers preparing for the arrival of its first denizens. And then they came?team by team, until more than 75 countries had draped their flags out the dorm room windows.
Though SLOC obviously facilitated opportunities for athletes from different teams to interact?with gamerooms and concerts?athletes could have easily ignored the chance and focused entirely on their respective sports. But they didn’t. Athletes maximized every opportunity, to reach out and learn about each other. Though they were competing in the most serious athletic event of their careers, they made time to chat with other athletes in the cafeteria and swap stories over coffee.
If athletes can establish a sense of community during the most stressful time of their lives, surely we, on this university campus?a place whose first name means, literally, a place to exchange ideas?can do the same during one of our most stressful stages of our lives.
Though students will obviously not be lavished with the luxuries of free food and drink (not to mention as many free games of Pac-man they humanly desire), it is their responsibility, as it was with their Olympic predecessors, to utilize their environment to create a cohesive living community.
And, for those of you not living on campus, you are not exempt. On the other side of Wasatch Drive are just as many collegiate opportunities.
After the Olympics were over and school began again I took a stroll through the Union Chartwells. Though I am not a statistician, my informal analysis resulted in some harrowing results. More than half of the people there were eating alone, watching television or reading a book.
Though students and faculty have places to go and people to meet, what would be the harm in joining someone at their table? Chances are that your brief company would be a welcome break from the stresses of homework. In fact, what is the worst thing that can happen? If they say no, then you’ll know that they don’t want you to bother them. No harm done.
As college students we are not so different from athletes. OK, so maybe not physically (though I’m sure athletes eat the occasional cold piece of pizza for breakfast), but conceptually. We are here at the university to reach our goals, whether it is to land a good job or go on to graduate school. We train our minds while trying to keep that delicate balance between work and play.
However, just like the athletes in the Olympic Village, our lives should never become so intense that we forget one of the fundamental elements of what it means to succeed: If you cannot share your passion?whether it be skiing or studying physics?you are missing one of the fundamentals of learning?passing on knowledge.
If international athletes can take a break to learn about other athletes and their sports, U students can certainly find the time to do the same with their university comrades. Besides, athletes in the Village spoke more than 40 languages and still bonded. What does that say about the people at the U who, for the most part, speak one language and still can’t manage to communicate with each other?
If approaching random strangers seems like the Mt. Everest of social moves, begin speaking up in class and talking with your professors after about the text or current issues associated with what you are learning. Coaches are there for the athletes for the four years of intense training that precedes the Olympics. Many professors at the U are the same way. They are not just there for your Olympics?the class final?but are also available throughout the semester. And if they are not, professors are not performing their duty as teachers?to mentor and to encourage students in their pursuit of knowledge.
Thinking less metaphorically, the Games provide this university with resources, renovations and new residences?increased awareness of the U’s academic and sports programs, the reawakening of Officers Circle (buildings that will soon be home to students in specific academic disciplines) and a striking new museum of fine art. And, though it may be the waning echoes of youthful idealism, it is not the building themselves that will predict the future success of this campus, it is the people that inhabit them.
Laura welcomes feedback at: [email protected] or send letters to the editor to: [email protected].