Editor:
I love the beginning of a new semester. For the first two or three days, the campus teems with students. I particularly like the Fall Semester, because the sun shines down on it all and puts everyone in a good mood. New classes, new faces?it’s always an exciting time. The combination of academic optimism and sun make people seem friendlier. On Wednesday, I met and conversed with three strangers during the course of the day?one in a class, one at the Union, and one on the bus going home. What an auspicious way to start the year.
I am returning to the U this fall after spending my sophomore year on exchange at a school in Maryland. It was a small school, with about 1600 students, the majority of whom lived on campus. It was a far cry from the U, where the reigning mindset holds that the school is like an airport; it’s a means to an end, but not a place you’d really hang out if given the choice.
I had to stop by the U before school started. I navigated the orange cones, parked, did my business, and got back in the car. I was pained by the school’s enormity and the impersonal nature of commuter life. I couldn’t forgive the U for being what it is?a huge commuter school.
But that sentiment changed on Wednesday, when flocks of students roamed the campus. As we all know, these herds will diminish as the weeks pass and people stop attending class. But for one sunny day, the U felt like someplace I wanted to stay.
I know we’re all going to lapse into our study routines and the weather will get colder. Eventually we’ll all be hurrying past each other in the snow. But, I’d like to think that some piece of Wednesday’s campus camaraderie could survive the winter, if we gave it the chance. I’m not saying you all have to move onto campus, or stop driving your cars. I’m just advocating a little more friendliness.
You may not recognize every face you pass, but it wouldn’t hurt to smile, or at least make eye contact when you pass someone on a path. Or talk to the other people in your classes. Or exchange pleasantries when you have to sit next to someone on the bus.
Doubtless, people will make their annual complaints about a lack of community on our campus this year. I’m saying that I’ve seen a spark of life at the U, and our school could be a better place if we could all maintain that glow. The U will never be a small school, but that doesn’t mean we should abandon any hope for a sense of community here.
Erin Moore Junior, English