Between conflicting spirit week schedules and an uproar over changed traditions, Homecoming Week escalated into controversy that disrupted our community.
The poor discourse between administrative groups and students is all the more frustrating because every person involved has the same goal in mind: bring together the community and increase school spirit.
That goal is particularly important this year because half the student body had not attended in-person school at Marshall going into this year, and the things those students see early in the year set a foundation for the rest of their high school experience. Between older students and longtime teachers, it is often recognized that school spirit has declined over the past five years, which made getting this year right imperative.
Unfortunately, we took ourselves too seriously. Spirit week is supposed to be about being silly and having fun at your own expense without caring about how ridiculous you look. This year, we got the immaturity that goes along with spirit week, but it didn’t help bring us closer to our goal.
Disregarding the opinions of students, especially those with a grasp on how to improve participation, is unhelpful. At the same time, completely shunning authority and being unwilling to work with administrators is automatically going to result in an outcome lower than the potential ceiling.
Ultimately, isn’t that what we all want? To reach the ceiling? To have the closest possible community and the highest possible spirit?
To get back to those goals that unite the school, it will take cooperation from each component of the school.
As students, we need to use the resources available to us, particularly our student representatives. Those student representatives have an obligation to listen and present proposals to issues to staff. Whether those proposals get enacted or not, it is unfair to complain about situations before using the institutions already available to us.
2021-11-10