Submitted by Leandro B. Monar
To be “Orange” as a value can be difficult to explain, mostly because to be “Orange” is not a value, but a group of values. This group of values can be compare to subjective relativism, due to the fact that they are different for every single member of the Oregon State University community (Vaughn, 2013). The “Orange” values are establish by the way people inside OSU community behave in every moment of their live. This behavior should not be confused with the behavior the OSU community has in school, which is establish by the Student Conduct Code (Oregon State University, 2014). Every person in the OSU community is different from one another, but among all the values the OSU community has, the one that most of them share and has great importance, is the value of respect.
People form the OSU community respect one another in every moment of their live and not only when they are at school and they have to follow a conduct code. In a university town, such as Corvallis, people from the OSU community can be found in very corner of the town. For this reason, the way people respect each other is noticeable in every corner of the town in every day of the year. The “Orange” value is seen in the way people from different cultures respect each other without any type of discrimination. For example, there are many Asian celebrations, such as Chinese New Year, that are enjoy by many members of the OSU community inside the facilities of Oregon State University. The “Orange” value can also be seen in the respect to elderly people and the respect to people with disabilities. This is seen a lot in the public transportation at Corvallis, where members from the OSU community give their sits to elder people and people with disabilities, and there is no need for the bus driver to interfere and ask people to give their places to someone else.
One of my favorite’s ways of showing respect is the respect to ideas and believes. In almost every part of the OSU community, people can respectfully express their ideas without the fear of being criticizes or segregated for that. Respect is an easy way to describe the “Orange” value, but “Orange” should be something more than that. “Orange” should be a permanent life style and not something that will just last while a person is part of OSU. To be “Orange” should mean that a person learn the importance of treating others with respect and will continue to do it after graduation or his entire life. It will not matter to what place that person move, what type of environment he encounters or at what age that person is, the “Orange” value of respect should continue inside that person and it should never disappear, but it should get stronger.
References
Oregon State University. (2014). Oregon State University. Retrieved from Student Conduct and Community Standards : http://oregonstate.edu/studentconduct/home/
Vaughn, L. (2013). Doing Ethics. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Submitted By: Patrick Foley
Be Orange
Being orange can be classified into a lot of different categories and will be different from person to person. In general I think it means how you would want to be classified as a person graduating from Oregon State University, meaning what are your values, education and career goals, and how you interacted and contributed to the campus community.
I believe that everyone is different in what they want people to think about them. If someone doesn’t care what other people think then that person would most likely not be very friendly, but they could still have good values. But for me I have high values which I think can rub off onto other people. I try to be very respectful and nice to everyone I meet, hold the door open for people, try to start conversation with kids in my classes, the list goes on and on. I feel like if everyone was to try and do one of these things then the campus as a whole would be a nice place to be, just like it is. This could tie into utilitarianism, see everyone as equal and do an act that produces more pleasure than pain. Also we can relate to Kant’s universal law theory which states to act in a way that you would want people to act towards you, basically the same thing as the golden rule we learned when we were young.
Being orange can is something that people should want to associate with their career goals. If you wanted to get a job and the employer knew you graduated from Oregon State then you would want him to associate you with a school that has a good reputation. Having a good reputation starts with the students and how they act which ties back into Kant’s universal law. Being orange can also tie into your educational goals. For instance you couldn’t really have a successful time in school if everyone was rude to you or you weren’t having fun. The University has a reputation to uphold and all the professors play just as big of role in it as the students do, so if you want to get the most out of your education then having the professors try and teach in a way will benefit the students the most. But in order to do so the students have to want to learn and be respectful towards the professors which is a definition of good, act in a way that produces more pleasure than pain.
All the points stated above on how to be orange contribute to the OSU community are dependent on how engaging students are. This can be done in a lot of different ways, for instance the increasing diversity at schools in across the country can be a good thing because it gives the opportunity for students to learn about different cultures and become friends with those other kids. There are also lots of different clubs that students can join to help with different things around campus. For instance all the art and posters around campus different student organizations are in charge of all of it. This can also help tie in with future careers, it can demonstrate to employers your leadership and organizational skills while maintaining the ability to carry out important tasks.
I think there is a variety of different ways to get being orange across. It can’t simply just be implanted in one day, it has to be done in many steps and can take a long time but it all has to start with each person wanting to be orange and to do what they feel would benefit the OSU community as a whole.
In conclusion I would like being orange to mean a wide range of things. The most important though is for each individual to be able to express good character traits, like being respectful. I would also like for the school to have a good reputation with people that didn’t attend, for instance future employers. I would want them to believe that OSU is a credible school that had lots of good people that showed me how to work hard and gave me the knowledge required to work there. I also think it means doing things out of your comfort zone like engaging with people from other countries and even different ethnicity. If we get a majority of the school acting in this manner or even a similar one it would be even more enjoyable then it already is, and it would give the school an even better reputation.
