The basis of a liberal arts education is diversity. And it’s not the kind of diversity we see mapped out on pie charts or expressed in percentage rates. Rather, it is the kind of diversity that is so obscure we don’t even think to graph it, categorize it, or label it, because it is just too…well, diverse.
This diversity runs deeper than the way we look, the groups we identify with, or the image we solicit. We express it, not in the clothes we wear or the clubs we join or the friends we have, but in the things we have the potential to create.
This isn’t about diversity within the Lawrence community. This is about the diversity and the uniqueness that exists within each of us: that one random passion that nobody else really seems to understand.
Whether that passion is one small idea or myriad ideas, we all have the chance to create something exceptional. That is what defines us as individuals.
Yet, for a liberal arts university, there seems to be little variation in what students are bringing to the table. Campus activities, events, and parties… everything seems to echo a similar tone. A general stagnation as a result of current attitudes and trends overwhelms the character of our campus.
By senior year, students are tired of attending what feels like the same party over and over again. Students express little excitement for what this campus brings to its community in forms of parties or publications, socializing or services, activities or art.
Maybe it is time to consider some changes.
Complaining is a favorite pastime for Lawrence students-and that shouldn’t change, by any means. A student’s freedom to reevaluate circumstances is essential to the improvement of student life. But active disappointment is what this campus needs.
Students should take the next step beyond complaint and do something about it! Throw out some crazy ideas and see who jumps at them. Test the faculty to see just how liberal and supportive this school really is.
We’d find a great number of people personally as well as professionally interested in what we have to offer. Rather than continuing to complain about the stasis of life at Lawrence, why don’t we focus that “diversity” and use our liberal arts “opportunities” to put our dreams to work rather than dwell on our own boredom?
It would be convenient to snap our fingers and make change happen or sit back and let the administration decide what the students here will accomplish, but would anyone really do that? No! (Hopefully not.)
Take that number-one thing off the top of your “I wish Lawrence had….” list and make it happen yourself. We are responsible, not only for our actions and our mistakes, but for our happiness and our general quality of life.
It is our nature as a liberal arts school to celebrate as a community what we can do as individuals.