Be Good. Be Orange.

Submitted by Haley Chapman

Being Orange: A Reciprocal Exchange

            When I close my eyes and envision the values I want to see demonstrated in the Oregon State University culture, I struggle to match my envisioned values with reality. I want Oregon State to help me grow beyond just academics, I want them to help me grow into my character as well . Sadly, I believe the structure we have here at OSU is solely focused on academic development, which means I am not living out to my character’s full potential. I believe that the university should place just as high as a priority on character development as academic achievement. When students come to college they are on their own for the first time. They lack parental guidance and have no limits on freedom. We are dropped into a new culture and expected to know how to responsibly behave, and yet we have no idea how we will respond to such unlimited freedom. I see college as a preparation tool for life, but it is used as a stepping stone for intelligence. We are here to learn about our fields of study and gain intellect, but I want OSU to push us to experience  and engage, so we can gain knowledge. In general, I want OSU to encourage its students to be better people, not just better students. As students, we support OSU through engaging in its culture and by being orange, but I want OSU to reciprocate this idea. I want being orange to be an interdependent exchange between both the students and the college. I want Oregon State to reflect the values we have towards it, which are compassion, engagement and knowledge.

By this time in our lives, we are expected to know who we are and accept who we are. But at 21 years of age, the majority of us still feel baffled. So many of us students feel trapped in confusion as to who we are, what we stand for, and why anyone would love us. The majority of students here at Oregon State desperately need to be forced to reflect on who they are and appreciate themselves. We study so we earn good grades. We are nice so we have friends. But, when do we ever take time to sit and appreciate our existence? Never, and that is because there is no intrinsic value placed on self love. I want us to be able to develop our characters over the four years here at Oregon State, so that when we graduate we will have more than just a diploma, we will have knowledge. Knowledge about who we are and what we want. Our diploma says we have the intelligence to succeed but it lacks the assurance of knowledge. This shows that if we support OSU, it should support us back by loving us like we love it. Oregon State should institutionalize a class that helps develop our character and help us flourish into compassionate individuals.

The first step to helping us grow is to encourage us to love who we are. I want Oregon State to facilitate us to open our eyes to love ourselves. To simply tell us that we are unique and special, and mean it. However, I have yet to see those values incorporated into a syllabus. I want students to feel proud of who they are and be optimistic towards their futures. We have baccalaureate requirements that force us to learn about diversity, cognitive skills, and perspectives, but yet we lack a requirement to learn about who we are as individuals. By taking self assessments, questionnaires, and experimental self discovery assignments, we could begin to unravel a greater understanding of ourselves. How can we grow if we don’t know what to work on? How can we have self efficacy if we do not know what we are capable of? Our baccalaureate courses structure us to learn about other cultures, other fields, in general, other people. My question is, why do we not have a requirement to learn more about ourselves? Why not have a baccalaureate prerequisite about appreciating who we are as individuals? A class that pushes students to in turn love who they are. I feel that it is the universities obligation to prepare us for life, not a career. Elementary school prepares us for middle school, middle school prepares us for high school, high school prepares us for college, and college prepares us for life. There is sadly such a lack of understanding on this principle. So many people believe that college is all about preparing us for a career, but it is so much more than that. We are basically learning how to parent ourselves and I think it is the universities role to help us with that experience. It is such a simple idea, but it could have an incredible impact on the wellbeing of us students. Imagine the self empowerment one would feel after attending lectures designed for them to learn about themselves so they can eventually love themselves. When someone loves their self,  I am referring to them accepting who they are and having a proud sense of self efficacy. I believe that by loving oneself, one would be able to love others and grow compassion, which I feel is what being orange is all about. And if the university wants us to exemplify being orange, then I feel they should, as an institution, exemplify it as well.

To me, being orange means associating oneself with Oregon State and engaging in its culture. You can exemplify being orange by being a cheering fan at a football game, teaching a class to a room full of students, or simply studying in the Valley Library. All faculty is a part of the orange culture, along with janitors, students, and fans. You don’t have to be an enrolled student to feel the power of orange, you just have to engage yourself. You can engage yourself by compassionately listening to those around you, by being ethically aware of your actions, or simply by supporting those in the orange culture. Engaging in the orange culture means being an active participant in the community. It can be as simple as proudly wearing that OSU logo or as complex as organizing a club on campus. Being orange means showing compassion for Oregon State and anyone who associates with it. If you want to be orange, then love your professors as much as your fellow classmates, go to sports events, join a club, and appreciate the culture surrounding you.

Being orange means you do not hesitate to hold open the door for the person behind you or lend a pencil to a helpless colleague. It means you understand the limits of your knowledge and are open and courteous to the opinions of others. Being orange means communicating with those around you with respect, compassion, and fairness. It is the combination of both respecting your morals and the morals of those around you. Above all, being orange means engagement. Engagement with yourself, with others, and with Oregon State University’s culture.

I want Oregon State to befriend us, push us, and encourage us to live lives full of compassion. In order to do that, Oregon State needs to consider incorporating the idea of self compassion and compassion for others, as one of the core goals for students. They need to realize that we are in need of guidance for self discovery and that they should uphold their responsibility to facilitate such growth. By incorporating a self compassion baccalaureate requirement, we would be pushed to learn about ourselves and how to love and take care of our hearts, minds, and souls.

We need a college that values knowledge more than intelligence, for knowledge is based off intelligence and experience. I also want the concept of being orange to be a reciprocal exchange. I feel that a strong relationship needs to go both ways and in this case, OSU needs to appreciate its students as much as its students appreciate it. We show our support by proudly wearing orange and black and attending OSU sporting events, but how does Oregon State display its affection towards us students? Oregon State needs to exemplify being orange by displaying the same compassion and support we give them. They can engage in our lives by simply incorporating a character development plan into the curriculum. This would prove to us students that they value us and want to help prepare us for life’s challenges by strengthening our characters. In summary, I want Oregon State University to actively participate in the “being orange” philosophy by honoring the values of compassion, engagement and knowledge.