Feb. 23, 2015
Scribe Staff
[email protected]
Yellow police tape has fluttered around the Academic Office Building for the majority of the past three weeks.
It is there, serving as a marker for shattered windows that were impacted by a BB or pellet gun on two separate occasions this month, shattering between eight and 10 windows in total.
This incident leads to a concern that will continue to plague UCCS in the coming years: our reputation and how we are viewed by the community.
A similar conundrum was brought up in the Sept. 29 issue of The Scribe, where the editorial bemoaned the main reason UCCS is in the news: bad parking relations.
That piece evaluated the job that UCCS administration has done to alleviate parking issues that plague both students and our neighbors around campus.
Now, it is time for us (students) to share some of the blame.
We don’t know who vandalized the Academic Office Building, and we may never know. But if it was a student, it would serve as a prime example of a general rule that we have to learn to accept: the community, the state and the region are beginning to notice UCCS.
And they are going to have their X-Ray spectacles on when they notice, and then evaluate, us. So we better be ready.
The “face” of a university is the administration, the athletics and the public relations folks. But the real face, the one that the community, state and region interact with on a daily basis is students.
When community members drive by the Academic Office Building, and see the yellow police tape that faces the road, they make assumptions about UCCS, no matter who actually perpetrated the vandalism.
And those assumptions automatically jump to the face of the school: students.
Perception is reality, and the reality that community members see due to that police tape is a campus of vandalism. And that campus is represented by students, who in turn must be not-so-good as well.
Students represent UCCS, everywhere and all the time. How do you want UCCS to be seen? And how, as students, can you help?
The reputation of the school you graduate from will follow you as long as you have that diploma. So help make sure it’s a good one, it’s in your best interest.