Syracuse University is the place that we call home during the four long years (or five… I got you Architecture majors) of earning a college degree. One year for the new friends and independent bliss of being free from parental “advice.” Two years for the mandatory dining hall food. Three years for finally mustering up the courage to spray paint your accomplishments on the bathroom door of Chucks, and four years for realizing that the most difficult part of college wasn’t studying for finals or finding a way to finish your capstone on time, but turning to face an empty room as you leave for your first real job and realizing that you won’t be coming back.

This campus means a lot to many of us, and we have to take more time out of our busy schedules to speak up about the issues that we, the undergraduate students of Syracuse University, truly care about and want to see changed in our community. We must make a promise to ourselves and our university that we will stop investing our time talking about what we could be doing, what we should be doing, unless we are truly willing to invest our time in planning and carrying out the actions which have the capacity to make those ideas become reality.

I have heard students say that the South Campus buses are overcrowded. I have heard students say that self-segregation is a problem on campus. I have heard students say that they don’t agree with next year’s three percent raise in tuition.

I have heard students say so many things, but I have heard so few of them talking about the steps they are taking to make a change. For me, this is what I want to change. I have seen the great things that our students are capable of accomplishing, but I know that we can do more and I know that if we choose to do so, we will do more.

So, as you pack your bags for Spring Break and turn to face a nearly empty room, remember that you are coming back. Remember that you have the time and resources, whether you know it or not, to make the changes on our campus that can, and will, last far beyond your final goodbye. Start with an idea, begin with a plan and make it your prerogative to find a way to make our university better for having had you in it.

Amanda M. DeNardo
Representative for the College of Arts and Sciences, Student Association