Be Good. Be Orange.

By Tim Moss

What does it mean to be part of the OSU community? What does it mean to be ORANGE? That is the question that students get asked every time they see a “Be orange” flag or ask themselves every time they look at the new logo or walk into Dixon, or Kelley Engineering Center, or even Loco Boyz. All around campus, signs ask you what being orange means to you, and other signs tell you what it means. Being orange means holding a baby koala, or planting a garden, or riding your electric solar powered moped.  Being orange means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. A football player may think that to be orange means to win at all costs! An engineer may think that being orange means to design an innovative machine and sell it to a non-profit organization. A business professor may think that being orange means helping the leaders of tomorrow, their students, gain a firm footing in today’s economic struggle. Our PHL 205 class alone thinks that being orange, among other things, means being hard working, successful, sustainable, honest, responsible, compassionate, having pride, being different both in culture and ideas, and basically infinitely more things. Maybe a Beaver fan thinks that being orange means to support the beavers when they play the ducks. Even though the odds are against us; never give up, never surrender! I think that right there means that being orange is being diverse and free to express your opinions in appropriate ways and with compassion. Being able to understand another’s point of view when it doesn’t match your own is an acquired skill. It is a fluid skill, a skill that promotes constant change and evolution. To me, to be orange, is to be fluid. To always be flowing and striving towards my goal. When a mountain blocks my way, I go around it, I go under it, I go through it. I collect tools along my journey and help others progress towards their goal. I accept help when I need it and I give help when I can. This is much like a river carries animals, boats, sand, dirt and all sorts of things from one destination to another. Some of these things progress the river and some of these things the river progresses.

I am spending these valuable years of my life at OSU in hopes to gain tools and skills to help me progress along the path to success. To me success means graduating with good grades and going on to work in my career, make money, change the world (even on a small scale),  and start a family.  Am I gambling that OSU can provide me with this success? Yes, I am. I don’t believe that anything in life is certain until it happens. Even then it can be difficult to prove. Most things, past, future, and present are all based on the different perspectives and moral understanding of many individuals. However, I have lessened the chances of failure by choosing a school that I think can give me what I want and more with the least amount of suffering and loss.

I think that the new logo supports my idea of a fluid education striving towards self-defined goals along the many waterways, estuaries, rivers, lakes, and oceans that life may take us. The new logo is sleek and determined. It is stretching towards what it wants and isn’t going to let anything stand in its way. Even though it may take a long time, water is extremely powerful and can shape and mold the earth as it sees fit. This new beaver logo has that amount of determination. It tells onlookers that at OSU we will never give up. However just the fact that we have changed our logo tells people in the community that we may not give up but we might change the way we look at things. We are certainly not stuck in our ways. New innovative processes and ideas are welcomed here.

According to the mission statement to be orange means belonging to the Oregon state university community. It means to be sustainable, to be ever advancing human development, and economic growth and social progress. Their mission is to mold future leaders tomorrow. The leadership team that wrote the goals at OSU doesn’t just target OSU students, faculty and staff, it targets the world.  Their OSU community starts with a small group; maybe a philosophy class or the school of engineering, and then those people have an effect on the entire university, who then change the entire city, state, country, and the world. Their mission is to mold the future leaders of tomorrow.

I think that to be considered a part of the OSU community, you don’t have to be a student, teacher, faculty member or even work or go to school at OSU at all. I think parents and friends of OSU students and staff can be orange. The only requirement in my book that one needs to consider themselves orange is to do just that; they need to “consider themselves” a part of the community. I think that it is entirely a personal choice and only requires the right mindset. One’s whole life doesn’t have to be spent on campus or donate a million dollars to be considered orange. A person simply caring enough to say they support us, to me, makes them a part of the OSU community.

Be ORANGE: Be FLUID! This is what being orange means to me. To be fluid and to be orange means to be motivated, accepting of others, and willing to learn.  Fluids can change and adapt with the lay of the land. They always are moving towards their goal, but can have some fun along the way. To be fluid is to let nothing stand in your way. Over time even the strongest barriers can be worn away.