Chapman's spiritual, physical, emotional and mental pillars encapsulate four important values for its students. But what it doesn't include is courage – the ability to stand up for what is right or against what is wrong.
This semester, Chapman peppered its campus with new maroon banners, proclaiming that this campus is where leaders come to explore, to learn and to create ideals for its students to live up to. However, on the spiral staircase in Argyros Forum, students have posted their own messages. On the second floor banister, a Phi Sigma Sigma poster reads, "Stand out, but never stand alone." While we appreciate the sentiment of community intended by this message, we'd encourage students to analyze it more critically.
Sometimes, you must stand alone. When a prevailing message is one of injustice or unfairness, it takes one voice to stand up, as a leader, and denounce it. To stand out is to be an individual and unique. While this is important to our generation of developing adults, the courage to stand alone is what will bring about change.
It's a comforting idea to think we will always have a group that will support us in whichever opinion we hold. But it's a reality that too much slides by because people are afraid to be the lone voice of opposition. A message instructing people to never stand alone is reinforcing the pressure to go with the group.
On our small campus, it's easy to echo the opinions of those around us or to be stifled into silence by fear of being the only dissident. But in our classes, extracurricular activities and social lives, we should never be afraid to stand alone for what we believe. Maybe that's publishing an opinion and signing your name to it for the public to read. Maybe it's standing up in public forums and voicing out when everybody is afraid to speak. But, at the least, it is recognizing the value in having the bravery to be a lone voice.
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10 comments
Get the four pillars right.
Leave Greek Life out of it.
Build up, don't tear down.