Over the past few weeks I’ve run a couple of columns concerning the state of traditions at N.C. State. In my first column I introduced the context of my discussion and gave a brief history lesson of the more recent lost traditions that whilst long erased from the general memory of today’s student body; no doubt still inspire passion among more than a few T-dub old timers.
Then last week I delved more deeply into the reasons I think surround the disappearance of important traditions from campus. Namely, I described the primary cause of this phenomenon as centered on the increasing importance of the University’s public image. Sensationalized media and the competitive nature of the University “industry” have more or less mandated to University officials that mistakes will not be tolerated and accidents will be blown out of proportion.
Last week, however, I promised light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m here today to follow through. There are solutions to our problems, and people are already starting to find them.
The most important thing our University can do to preserve, enhance, and perhaps even resurrect our traditions, is to work together. The preschool lesson of cooperation has been forgotten as lines are drawn pitting students against administrators against Student Government against the forces of the Empire. OK, so maybe a new Death Star is not one of the buildings under construction on campus and maybe Forrest Hinton and Tom Stafford aren’t about to solve their differences with light sabers.
My point is that everybody has their own perception of what somebody else is doing to mess things up around here and we are blind to the ineffectiveness of our own efforts. Each “side” needs to put themselves in the other side’s shoes.
I’ve heard that some persons aren’t keen on being lumped into the “administrator” category at the University. Unfortunately the only other words I can use to describe persons paid to more or less run things are bureaucrat or peon: so I apologize to any bureaucrats or peons that feel I or my fellow columnists have unfairly characterized them with our use of a collective noun. I’m sure that a chem-e major slaving away on homework till 3 a.m. every morning resents being lumped into the “student” category with underwater basket-weaving and home-ec majors.
All right, sorry for the rant. What I aim to get at is that students need to first put themselves in the shoes of administrators when planning events and defending traditions. I more or less detailed the concerns of administrators in my last column, so I’d just ask students to remember that, ultimately, the powers that be are just doing their job when they nix tradition in favor of public image and zero-liability.
I have advice for the University administration as well: cooperation, communication and accountability must be important facets of the student-administration relationship in order to find campus-wide consensus and ultimately rebuild the traditions of our school. If the University is to be run as a corporation, then students must be treated as the loyalist of customers. If we see our school as primarily a place of learning and scholarship, then students are the lifeblood of our community. If NCSU is seen as an institution bent on returning a higher quality of life to taxpayers of our state, then students are the medium through which that will be accomplished.
When administrators choose to discount and trivialize our representative body of students – the senate, when they hand-pick committees of yes-men and claim they are listening to student interests or fail to communicate with students about difficult issues, their policy loses legitimacy with students.
The entire University must stand behind our traditions as a united front, with both students and administrators in agreement upon their value. Only then will traditions truly thrive at NCSU, and both an appreciation of our history and an excitement at the prospects of our future will course through our campus.
Tell K-Ball to stick to poetry at viewpoint@technicianonline.com.
