Higher Education, especially liberal arts, is undoubtedly being tested right now. With pressure on leading colleges and universities coming from every possible direction, foundations are starting to crumble. Look at the University of Texas accepting governmental overreach for preferred funding, or Columbia University’s continued fight with their own student body. The pillars that uphold our educational institutions are starting to show cracks in ways that we haven’t seen before.
During this trying time, I’ve found it difficult to decide on how I can best help or take action in a meaningful way. After all, I’m a junior liberal arts student at an institution that is smaller than my high school. It can feel hopeless and pointless to take the first step, if I can even figure out what that first step is.
When I look around me, at this institution, and the people who love it dearly, I believe, although it may be naive, that I am not alone in these feelings and that others are also lost. Between the political arguments on YikYak, and the numerous headlines people repost to their instagram story, it is clear there are, at the very least, other students who care. Which is why I, though unsolicited, offer this advice: the best way forward is to do literally anything.
Any action is better than inaction. Whether it be bringing awareness to a student organization led event via social media or simply going out with friends, there is something to do. By continuing to be active despite a government wanting to snuff out dissenting voices and ways of life, we are protecting all of the ideas that founded a college like ours in the first place. A place that allows so much freedom to express oneself spits directly in the face of a government that is focused on systematically making expression more difficult.
Luther College, and institutions like it, rely on student activity like an IV drip. Obviously there can be no institution if there are no students there to learn, but more importantly, there isn’t a point to a physical campus if there are no activities taking place on it. Something as simple as taking part in the Silent Disco or attending an athletic event proves that there are people here, which proves the importance of the existence of campuses like Luther College.
The key to the lasting power of an institution lies in the middle of a seemingly random event found in the student bulletin that some students would normally gloss right over. If too many people read past events or decide that they would rather spend their time differently, then the number of events in the bulletin to ignore could drop dramatically. And what does that do if not push our institution and community towards irrelevancy? It lessens the vibrancy of this campus, and the institution as a whole.
Please, if you are reading this, do more things. Go to more events. Talk to more people. Whatever it is, however it manifests itself, prove that our community exists, prove that it is worth protecting and prove that college is worth it because without that, Luther College would not have a reason to continue existing for all the communities and people that love it.
CHIPS will continue to serve our campus community in any way that we can. I hope that just these first few weeks have already proven that to you. By covering campus news, and highlighting students and organization successes, we are hoping to not only showcase what makes Luther College great, but to inspire our audience and beyond to take their own action, however they can. Who knows, you might even get the itch to write for a newspaper.
