Be Good. Be Orange.

Submitted by Devon Renard

“Be Successful. Be Orange”

            To be “Orange,” you must strive for success in the ventures you undertake on a daily basis which promote the well being of the Oregon State University community. One must engage in activities and follow through with decisions that ultimately uplift beaver nation. Being successful, in my eyes, is the basis of what it means to be “Orange.” In order to strive for greatness and achieve my life goals through the receiving of my OSU degree, I must prove to be a successful person. Whether that be advancing my physical activity from collegiate athlete to playing for the Dallas Mavericks in the National Basketball Association such as Jared Cunningham, leading a group of my peers to rally for a tuition freeze like Dan Cushing, or simply following my own dream towards success of working for a well known contracting firm, building a firm network through my time at OSU, and gaining internship experience with local companies. My degree here at OSU symbolizes the long road of learning I have gone through and the credentials I have gained that are necessary to professionally present myself in the business world. This degree exemplifies the understanding I have gained of how a community can come together, supporting one another and give back where aid can be given, as well as my educational cap off of knowledge gained through sitting in a classroom receiving instruction from a single professor per course.

The value of success is expectant to be used by every single person in the world and it is our goal as Oregon State graduates to implement this knowledge into the minds of those who personally did not receive this degree or who did not take part in the construction of the student’s knowledge base to receive this degree. Each and every participant in the OSU community, students, faculty, and scholarship granters, all have a job to spread the word of striving for success across the world. This applies to the victims of the tsunami that hit Alaska in 1964, as natural disasters such as these are being studied by students and faculty at the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at OSU. The success of the world may also apply to Oregon Health and Science Universities Doernbecher Children’s Hospital who provide pediatric healthcare for kids suffering from bone and joint damage, cancer and blood disorders, cardio and neurological problems, and the OSU community generates thousands of dollars to aid in their world wide supportive health providing care, which saves the lives of countless children each day. (Doernbecher Children’s Hospital) With the aim of success, as the slogan “Be Orange” expresses, the OSU community is able to help others grow in their successfulness and promote itself for future endeavors to come.

Being orange may not only entail the sole value of success, but rather a new angle of promotion. “During the reveal, Oregon State athletic director Bob De Carolis declared the rebrand as being about three things: ‘Recruiting, recruiting, and recruiting.’”(Berkes, Peter [De Carolis, Bob]) In an interview with SB Nation the Oregon State athletic director clearly labels the mantra of what it means to be orange and new school logo as a means for recruitment towards student-athletes. This creates an immense drive for better athletes to want to come to OSU, ultimately producing a greater fan base and bringing in more revenue for the school. Athletics on the OSU campus are one of the top revenue earners for the school, but is recruitment the only way being orange can be defined? In class, communicating with my group members, a value they all believed was the best for defining what it means to “Be Orange” was diversity. To them this was cultivating the beliefs and ideas of people with different temperaments, talents, and convictions and spreading diversity across campus, through the community, and to the world. This would generate an endless amount of knowledge and creative thinking, but will this value advance OSU in a direction to advance the world?  I believe the success of both recruitment and diversity among the OSU campus are a part of what it means to “Be Orange,” but lack in the opportunities in knowledge growth and the education that Oregon State has to provide for its students and community.

Success is an important value and holds the sole aim of accomplishment. Being orange is doing just that. To “Be Orange,” one must simply accomplish the task at hand and promote the community, nation, or world around them. This value requires you as an individual or together with others, to determine a common goal or idea, building off of the knowledge and ideals of others, without the actions of procrastination, with the notion that no idea is a bad one, diving into the moral values you hold and to come up with a solution that has in some way advanced you, the community, nation, or world around you in a fulfilling manner. This applies to everyday individual choices made such as being polite through conversation, picking up garbage off the street, brushing your teeth in the morning, or spending time at a retirement home. Success may also be applied towards larger actions and moral decisions such as driving on the correct side of the road, aiding other countries by donating food and money, or building skyscrapers downtown. Being successful excludes anyone aiming to deter from the advancing successfulness of what being orange has to offer. This may include terrorists, people who perform bomb threats towards communities, or sexual assaulters on the Oregon State Campus. These people who perform these acts suppress the advancing successes of OSU and the positive movements Oregon State makes for the community, the nation, and the world.

Being “Orange” is being successful in your everyday life and is necessary for the modernization, economic growth and well being of Oregon State University, the community which surrounds it, the nation and the world which we live in. Being successful when referring to being orange is not just a belief some students have that it might be defined as, but rather a way of life people take on and define themselves by when they come to Oregon State University and agree to take part in what this institution has to offer. Be successful. Be Orange.

Sources Cited

1. Berkes, Peter [De Carolis, Bob]. “SB Nation.” March 4, 2013. March 17, 2013. <http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/3/4/4063318/new-oregon-state-logo-uniforms>
2. “Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.” Oregon Health and Student University. 2013. March 17, 2013. <http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/health/services/doernbecher/>
3. “O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory.” Oregon State University. 2013. March 17, 2013. <http://wave.oregonstate.edu/>
4. “Tsunami Research Center.” University of Southern California. 2005. March 17, 2013. <http://www.usc.edu/dept/tsunamis/alaska/1964/webpages/index.html>
5. “Wear The Square.” 2013. March 17, 2013. <http://www.wearthesquare.com>