Column: UNC students should embrace their surrounding community

The stone walls that line our campus shouldn't be the limit of a student's imagination or impact. Look outward, Tar Heels.

UNC students must be aware of and responsible for their influence on the broader Chapel Hill-Carrboro Community. As students, we have to think outside of just the classroom and become active members beyond our campus.

As students of North Carolina's flagship university, we all become North Carolinians. We have a debt to this state, born here or not, that provides us incomparable education and an immersive culture to come of age in.   

We're often too busy calculating our GPAs to the nearest thousandth, hustling over class schedules and keeping our gazes low that we never look out of the ivory tower. We have to look outwards and recognize the impact we have on Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the entirety of North Carolina. We can either leach off this community's vibrancy and history, or serve it. 

In general, we all seem to think about ourselves way too much. This self-obsession is an understandable survival mechanism in the current age's competitive, individualistic hustle culture. However, we must break that habit.

The most notable Tar Heels should not just be known for their grade in organic chemistry or their place on a semester’s Dean's List. 

Great Tar Heels like Paul Green built communities of culture beyond campus, platforming Zora Neale Hurston from a few miles away in Durham. Frank Porter Graham voluntarily interrupted his academic motivations to enlist in World War I, and then spent the rest of his life serving the young people of UNC. Nikole Hannah-Jones, a titan in journalism, yearned to come back to UNC, being brutally rebuffed for wholly political reasons. Writers like Jonathan Worth Daniels and Thomas Wolfe spent a blip of time here in Chapel Hill, but spent the rest of their days writing about it. 

Some students may see themselves as nomads who descend upon UNC for a short time, their lasting impact as ephemeral as their physical existence here. However, students’ impact on this community lasts far longer than four years. Our fate is inextricably tied to the fate of the institutions and communities we’ve pledged ourselves to. 

Students’ voices count. Students’ tone, culture and dollar all have immeasurable impact on their community. Every dollar we spend at chain restaurants and the newest pyramid scheme is a dollar taken away from the storied family businesses that make Chapel Hill home. As students, we pride ourselves on being agents of change and culture. But, we must make sure we aren’t trampling the vibrancy already at hand.

As the University lacks the ability to address students’ needs for alternative housing, students move outward into Chapel Hill. We must remember that our rentals were once family homes. Many student houses were once inhabited by Black citizens — residents of the Northside neighborhood could trace their ancestry back to the 18th century, before being uprooted by gentrification. Students’ hand in that gentrification is irrefutable. 

No matter how you got here, on scholarship or student loans, by plane or by a twenty-minute drive, you have privilege and responsibility. The taxpayers of Chapel Hill and North Carolina have allotted this plot of land to us. We should pay it right back. 

Students should serve their community through service at local charities and advocacy centers, such as The Marian Cheek Jackson Center, the RWA Center and the Boys and Girls Club. We should dare to venture beyond the stressors of class and our stone walls to delight in this “Southern Part of Heaven.” 

Learn to love this town, this county and this state — if you don’t already. We’ll wear sweatshirts with “Chapel Hill, North Carolina” across our chests for the rest of our lives. The least we could do is pledge genuine faith and fidelity to it. 

@marytwatk

@dthopinion | opinion@dailytarheel.com