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Students alone will relieve university's identity crisis
By: Chris Plumblee
Old Gold and Black Columnist

Recently, President Hearn stated that the purpose of the university is now "up for grabs." His point was that the ultimate identity of the university is no longer intimately tied up in the North Carolina Baptist Convention, nor does it fit any longer with exclusively being a small, private school in the South. The final identity for the university is now in the balance, and I believe that the student body will do by far the most to shape the identity that we take.

For instance, if the student body starts making it a priority to have a winning athletic department, and backs this up by supporting all the teams that represent the university, then those teams will change their mission with the change in expectation. Right now, nobody expects the women’s basketball team to win a national championship, but the only difference between our program and the program at Duke is that, a few years ago, the Duke student body decided that every team that wore Duke uniforms was deserving of their support, no matter how reluctantly given.

Thus, when Duke won a football game to end their three-year losing streak, there were thousands of students there to tear down the goalposts in Wallace Wade Stadium. They don’t expect much of their football team, but they do support the team when they play. Likewise, when their women’s basketball team plays, it’s not a burden to go to the game, and though there isn’t the cutthroat competition of the men’s season, Cameron Indoor Stadium is usually quite a bit louder and fuller than the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

I’m not saying that all it takes are new expectations to turn around a program but while concentrating all your support on the basketball team is great for the basketball team, it limits the possibilities for other, non-revenue teams whose athletes are every bit as fit as the basketball players.

Personally, I spend at least as much time at football games as I do at basketball games, and attend occasional games for the soccer and field hockey teams. Just last weekend, I spent part of the night of Sept. 7 at the Deacon Invitational in Reynolds Gym, watching the Demon Deacon ladies’ volleyball team thump Virginia Tech University.

Other aspects of this great school can be lifted up by student involvement. What would happen if, instead of students going to Georgetown University, Harvard University, the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for law school if they started staying here, and spent their time after they graduated actively recruiting for our law school?

Now, the school is a valued part of our campus and has some national recognition, but is not nearly as well known as other schools, even in our area. Our facilities are, I daresay, the equal of anyone in the nation, but the reputation is not based on facilities alone, but on the success of the graduates.

The student body has the power to change the mission of the university. I believe that the current identity of the university as a conservative Southern Baptist institution is changing regardless of what we, as the students at the university, do about it. It will, however, be in our best interests, not to mention the best interests of the university, for us to have some say in how it changes.

If the change is left to happen as it will, without any sort of input from us as parties with vested interests, then the finished product will be something shaped by a combination of faculty, administration and environmental forces. I can’t predict what might happen should these forces combine with the current, though shifting idea of what the university is, but I am reminded of an inspirational quote that I heard once that I think is particularly appropriate. Some wise soul once said something to the effect that "I am the steerer of my ship; I am the captain of my soul." I want students, who receive the benefit of a Wake Forest education, to in turn shape the university into something of which they can be proud when they reach the twilight of their years.

The campus is unrecognizable to people who came here in the ’50s for the first time because the idea of what it was to be a Wake Forest student has changed. Let this be the generation of students who are the captains of not only their souls, but of the soul of the university as well. This is a tremendous opportunity, and simultaneously a great challenge. Rise to meet it, because this generation of students can really do the most to shape the destiny of the university.

Chris Plumblee is a junior communications major.