Be Good. Be Orange.

Be Determined Be Orange

Peter Reisdorf

Philosophy 205

Dr. Jenkins

5 December 2013

Be Determined Be Orange

Universities can be known for a lot of things; however it is hard to define a school simply by a two word phrase. At Oregon State University “Being Orange” is a way of describing the whole mentality of the students and faculty. In order to understand the community that makes up Oregon State, we must understand that being orange has a wide variety of meaning to the eclectic group of people who make the university what it is today.

Being Orange clearly originates from the school colors of orange and black. However this simple choice based upon the school color is hardly a representation of what it means to be orange. To a large majority of sports fans being orange most likely translate to the Oregon State football, among all the other sports offered at OSU. Commercials surely reflect an image of dressing up in orange and black to support the universities’ sports programs. For those not greatly fixated on sports, “Being Orange” is a value. This value represents the academic greatness that Oregon State University has to offer. Although “Being Orange” can relate to each individual on a different level, it is also widely accepted within the community as general pride in OSU. This idea is the fact that the color orange represents a community that extends to anyone that shares a relationship, or part in Oregon State University. I think that in order to establish Being Orange I must explain my personal goals and views in the context of the OSU community. Many forget that as students, faculty member, parent, sports fan and anyone else tied to the university, we are one giant community. “Being Orange” to me involves being prideful and well rounded as a University. I believe the OSU community should be respectful, polite, hard working, courageous, determined and dedicated. These values can be universally used throughout the many categories this university represents. Being orange means excelling in not only sports and academics, but also being a community that any person would be proud to be a part of. When a student graduates we want them to be able to represent the Orange community wherever their work may take them. We want the future society to have real world values that stem from what they learn from being Orange at OSU.

In order to successfully show what it means to be orange we must help the community come together so that we can get to know everyone and spread the common mission of being Orange. The university does already have many activities and events that help members of the orange community interact with each other. However my vision would be to get groups that already exist within the Orange community to interact with one another. For example some sports fans know nothing about the great academics occurring at the university. In order for people to be orange they must interact with all the people in their own community. I feel that we need to find a hybrid event that would encourage the sports side of the community to interact with the academic side of the university. An event involving a display of current research could also be tied into an event such as a pep rally for sporting events. I think that showcasing current research and academic progress along with promoting our athletic department would help insure that people from both aspects of the university would get to see the success of the university from different perspectives. This is just an example of two groups that I feel do not interact with each other. There are many other people that fall into other groups and sub categories.

The goal would be to help decrease segregation of groups and reduce the number of cliques and sub groups that form naturally based upon the activities and interests that each student has. The idea being that in addition to people having their own more specific idea of what being orange is that they would now have a base foundation knowing that being orange is being part of the Oregon State Community. This community would then be able to share a common set of values. This would promote the idea that the Orange community is accepting of anyone willing to uphold the values that represent being Orange. The better the Orange community can get along in a positive, respectful and understanding manner the more pleasant of a place Oregon State will become. In addition to the respect that will come from being a graduate of such a fine university.