Be Good. Be Orange.

Submitted by Reed Oxsen

To be orange to me means that you complete a degree at Oregon State University and any level. This shows responsibility because there is a lot of time and sacrifices that have to be made to complete a degree at Oregon State. This is also a value that I want people to associate with when I get my degree.

Responsibility is to be accountable for something within ones power. This value reflects being orange because if you conduct yourself and act in a responsible manner people are going to be positively affected. Does just the pure fact that you act in a responsible way make you orange? Not for my definition. Responsibility is a characteristic that goes along with being orange, but being responsible does not make you orange. This is important to discuss because then everyone who does a responsible act would be considered orange and that is not the case. In completing a degree from OSU, responsibility looks like this. Good time management, completing assignments on time, going to class, interacting and communicating with others respectfully and putting in the effort to complete the degree. I would not include professors at OSU in my definition of being orange unless they graduated from OSU because even though you work for the university the experience that was gained by the professor is from another institution, so they are not truly orange because they did not go through the OSU system.

Oregon State has expressed the importance of community as a part of being orange, but I don’t think they do a good job at bringing the sense of community to OSU. A recent example of this would be with the unveiling of the new logo. Majority of the students were not so thrilled with the look of the beaver. If Oregon State wanted to show community they could have offered several different designs that students could have voted for, that way OSU as a community would feel like we have more of a say in what we identify ourselves with. Oregon State stated that the reason why the university chose the logo was to further the athletic program in recruiting. Athletes make up a small portion of the OSU student body, so to make a logo with the intention to cater to them does not promote the value of community that the university markets to us. By OSU saying they promote community and then endorse something that does the exact opposite is unethical and shows a lack of responsibility, which is a value that I identify with being orange.

Another motto that OSU has is that we are Beaver Nation. What does this mean? I looked up what the university defined this as and all I could find was information about the success of the athletic program and the athletes that are excelling in the classroom as well. When I think of Beaver Nation I think of the past and present students of OSU. The definition of nation according to Merriam-Webster is as follows, “A large aggregate of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.” Only having information about the athletic program does not fit this definition because the athletic program is not something that everyone at OSU is united in common. Many students don’t even go to athletic events, so to have that as the focus does not fit the definition of Beaver Nation. It should be of the education OSU provides because athlete or not everyone has to take classes.

When I graduate I want my degree to show that I am a responsible person who knows how to complete something that they start. I don’t want my degree to looked upon as something that was given to me, but something that I worked hard for and earned because then people are more likely to take what I say as something that is important and credible. If my degree means something that is viewed in a positive way by others then not only do I benefit, but the University does as well.