Smells like school spirit

KYLE LAMOTHE STAFF

Let’s start off with the assumption that the U of M is a pretty good school. Yes, we might have to wait in a line for bus passes if we aren’t cursing the walk from a distant parking lot, but if we cannot at least nod our heads slightly from reading that statement, then there is something wrong.

Maybe it is a lingering resentment because you grew up in Winnipeg and had dreams that didn’t materialize of shipping off to some exotic university in some faraway place. Or it might have something to do with the constant bad publicity we get every year when Maclean’s magazine shackles the U of M in the basement of their university rankings.

In any case, there is an underlying lack of pride in the way that a lot us of see this school that we attend. We can see this, for example, hidden in the piles of garbage left in University Centre after lunchtime, in the empty seats of a [insert any Bison team here] game, and waiting in traffic at the 4:30 exodus, when students and almost all faculty flee instead of becoming involved in the campus community.

It’s not that hard to understand why this problem persists, as pessimists tend to influence their peers, but there doesn’t really seem to be any reasoning for why it exists in the first place. Maybe the pride is missing simply because we haven’t looked for it in the first place, and that is dangerous for the reputation of our degrees as well as the experiences we get as students here.

As an example of what perpetuates the negative vibes that waft through the lecture halls and tunnels of campus, let’s start close to home — really close. On this page in the Nov. 17 issue of the Manitoban, Tessa Vanderhart ended her editorial on the Maclean’s university rankings with this remark:

“As long as the problems with the Maclean’s rankings are addressed only in terms of petty numerical critiques, they will remain. The problem is with our university, regardless of any other explanations.”

The statement originated from the idea that a cycle of buck-passing occurs when the university rankings hit the shelves: the university administration says that we don’t have enough money, the government ignores the study, and the students make smart-ass remarks about attending the lowest-ranked university in the medical/doctoral category.

Now, there are major problems with the way the magazine creates these rankings, but what is missing from the fallout are solutions and optimism acknowledging that the school does a lot of things well and could get even better with a better attitude. We have a lot of esteemed scholars and students on this campus and the university does groundbreaking work in everything from plant science to physics, but this gets overlooked all too often.

That is not to say that we should silence the critics, as changing the problems that someone has pointed out is what makes people and things better, but at some point we have to feel pride in what we have. Ultimately, we cannot forget that “the university” is not some separate entity — people make up institutions, so we are the university. When we say that it is the university’s fault that we fare poorly in the Maclean’s rankings, we are writing off our ability to improve our school environment.

Let your mind wonder about what a statement such as Ms. Vanderhart’s does to the university. To a student or person of the community who read the words, it might be enough to plant the uncertainty seed and make the person seek out more of the negatives and less of the positives around campus until they become a weeping willow of disdain towards the U of M.

When we graduate and spread across the country/globe, any person who has heard us speak down about our Alma Mater will gain that same view of the U of M until the bad reputation blankets employers like pesticides on an orchard — as if Maclean’s hasn’t done enough. The only thing that could cheapen our degrees more than a terrible reputation would be a name change to the “Community College of Manitoba.”

But in the same way that cynicism spreads, so can a positive outlook. All too often, the press highlights the negatives and forgets the good stuff (immune, the Manitoban is not), so when praise for the accomplishments of this institution arise, we should probably let it sink in deep. Maybe hearing more of the good will make us think more of the good and see more of the good in this place.

So instead of waiting for our lack of pride to confirm itself, let’s start off with the assumption that the U of M is a pretty good school.