O nly time will tell if Chapel Hill’s bipolar weather may soon settle down and let the Pit resume its place as the central hub rather than the central lagoon of campus. I think I speak for many in saying springtime is my favorite part of the year at UNC. As a kid who grew up under drearier skies in the Northeast, it’s refreshing to know your annual childhood dream of winter dying in the month of March comes true somewhere. More than the brilliant foliage soon to light up our campus, however, what energizes me most is the bright passion of those student groups out on campus for their causes.
Just yesterday alone, I saw a litany of groups, from Habitat for Humanity to the Vegetarian Society, scattered across the Pit putting up banners, handing out fliers and even pieing their members’ faces slapstick style to garner attention for their cause. Whether working toward a 5K race sometime next week or an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement sometime this decade, our student groups illustrate the boundless ideals worth fighting for here at UNC.
The strategies that successfully realize their ideal, however, are not. Their success is made or lost by the quality of the relationships we make and maintain along the pursuit. And taking a less orthodox approach, I’d like to employ the Goldilocks Principle of “not too hot, not cold” to explain, illustrated with a couple of stories.
To avoid using names for the sake of privacy, I joined a student organization in my junior year by the encouragement of a senior who I had great respect for. His knowledge was expansive, his opinions were well informed and his motivations were just. As I watched many of his valuable initiatives fail over that year, however, it caused me to pause and wonder why.
It was not for lack of expertise or ethics — it was his neglect of relationships. His words and tone told that he prioritized objectives (however just) over others, and people sensed a coldness in it.
On the other extreme of the principle are those strategies that burn too hot. Rather than avoid specifics, I’d rather be direct this time for the sake of clarity: I’d like to briefly examine the campaigns around sexual assault because of how immediate they are to everyone at UNC. I join many in saying how exciting it has been to hear the drumbeat for an end to rape and the complicit culture around it grow over my time at UNC. The traction this cause deserves is long overdue.
It has pained me, however, to watch excitement turn to anger and strategies turn divisive and competitive, turning off too many fair-minded students. When our righteousness burns so hot that intimidation against anyone seems a logical strategy, for example, I believe we’ve forgotten both the nature and appeal of our common humanity, a simple yet powerful principle.
Neither cold calculation nor fiery passion alone will carry our causes at UNC or after forward. Our ideals rest on the support of everyone we know.
