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Our university apparently no longer “Dares to Be Great.” It appears we are stuck in a game of “Truth or Dare” with the university, while we wait for them to choose truth instead of playing dare with our futures.
Currently, on the heels of the University of Louisville’s revealing of a new branding campaign; a hiring freeze, budget cuts and a lack in student morale abound. Years of research and thought have gone into a new motto for U of L: “It’s Happening Here.”
But what is “It,” exactly?
Is it the consistent increase in tuition that continues to cause students to buckle at their knees and wallets?
Is it the fact that life on campus is seemingly coming to a halt with diminished parking, suffering food services and non-existent student spirit?
If those things are examples of “It,” then they are certainly ‘happening here.’
But what is more important are the things that aren’t.
Jobs aren’t happening here.
With the continued budget cuts and hiring freeze placed on the university, strong candidates for needed positions will go unhired. The university will miss out on some of the most knowledgeable teachers in America because they don’t have the money to employ them.
Growth isn’t happening here.
Resident halls are nearly maxed out this year with 98 percent of the buildings being full. How can U of L become the thriving residential school it yearns to be with stunted funding and little room to house its new students?
Spirit isn’t happening here.
A landlocked commuter school with an administration seemingly uninterested in raising student spirit, student pride, and student involvement on campus.
A thriving student spirit is arduous to obtain with several other, and far more important, concerns: woeful parking, deplorable food services and escalating tuition increases.
University administrators show their true colors by patting themselves on the back for this new branding campaign, instead of fixing the internal problems that plague our university. They have attempted to cover them up with a superficial change of motto, comparable to that of slapping a new coat of paint on an old house, when it needs extensive renovation.
Instead of spending money in the research, preparation and execution of a new branding campaign, which included all the money spent on advertisements, billboards and banners, the university could have saved money and included all of this in its three percent budget cut.
Maybe then “It” would be happening here.
