Between the internships, camps and adventures, the summer of 2015 brought about a lot of activity for students and a lot of change for Oklahoma Christian University.
Ethos policies were changed, a social service club was suspended, a new early bird financial program came about, Earn Your Wings was different, student athletes were entered into a new conference, a weight room renovation occurred and a handful of students were personally affected by all of this. Throughout all of the change, one thing remained the same: students continued to express opinions on Twitter.
I’ve expressed my feelings on this topic before, but apparently I was too broad. This summer the tweets were like a plague. Students, left and right, were trashing Oklahoma Christian on social media like it was going out of style. Enough is enough, Eagles. It’s time to stop bashing Oklahoma Christian on the Internet.
While it seems that many students are forming together to attack the integrity of our university, some can also say that professors are building up defenses.
On Aug. 29, standing in front of the reflection pool at the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial, Dean of Spiritual Life Jeff McMillon addressed hundreds of returning Oklahoma Christian students and new freshmen at the close of Earn Your Wings. McMillon spelled out what it meant to be an Eagle of Oklahoma Christian University, and expanded on the pride and joy we should feel as Oklahoma Christian students.
Professors of Communications Brian Simmons echoed McMillon’s point Tuesday during Chapel – the education we receive from this institution is a gift that we should not stomp on, but one that we should cherish and be proud of, he said.
Here’s what I know as a senior at Oklahoma Christian: our professors hate us, our administration is out to ruin our lives, the Student Life Office doesn’t want us to have any fun, curfew is set to destroy our social lives, Chapel is required because Kudos actually do get you to heaven and that the degree we’ll receive on graduation day means nothing.
If you have any common sense, you know that previous paragraph is fully sarcastic and wrong. But if I were a high school student who was interested in attending Oklahoma Christian and I saw those things posted on Twitter (because they’re actually there), I would laugh at this school and run away from it.
Our education from Oklahoma Christian is a gift. We, as students, have been blessed with administration, professors and staff who love us and expect great things from us. We are blessed to attend a school that actually does feel like home.
One day your employer is going to put into effect a policy that you don’t like, or they’re going to tell you to do something you don’t feel like doing, and you’ll angrily subtweet your boss and your organization. I promise you your boss won’t turn his or her head like nothing happened. No, instead they’ll fire you for your immaturity and unprofessionalism.
Could you imagine if Neil Arter expelled a student every time they tweeted negatively about Oklahoma Christian? Could you imagine the outrage? What if you, the person who sends out anti-Oklahoma Christian tweets daily, looked in the mirror and saw your own immaturity and unprofessionalism? What if you changed your perspective?
The last time I wrote about a social media outlet, the website was blocked through Oklahoma Christian’s WiFi services. I’m not asking that Twitter be blocked from student’s use, I’m asking Oklahoma Christian students to realize the precious gift they’re given every day. Each morning you wake up as an Oklahoma Christian student, you should be like a child waking up on Christmas morning: joyful, excited and thankful.
Maybe I’m naive, a wishful thinker or just stupid, but the morale on our campus would improve tremendously if we all shifted our perspective of Oklahoma Christian University to something more positive. If you have a problem with something on Twitter, don’t put Oklahoma Christian on blast mode. Instead, go about the more mature route and talk to an administrator, staff member or professor who could help solve your dilemma. The great thing about attending this university is that our faculty and staff will actually sit with us and listen to what we students have to say.
Stop bashing my home on Twitter, change your perspective and be thankful for the wonderful experience and education that we receive from Oklahoma Christian University.
Jake Whiteley is a senior at Oklahoma Christian University and the Opinions Editor of The Talon.
0
0
Hmm… Let’s do a little fact-checking here.
Searching for the #occhristian on Twitter, I had to go back to early August to find a single critical tweet about OC. I couldn’t find a single negative one for the month of July. There were a few less-than-tasteful jokes, but the majority of tweets I could find, even the ones not posted by the university or people associated with it, were positive!
Did I miss the plague? Or is this lazy journalism?
Maybe I should go find the “students [that] are forming together to attack the integrity of our university” and ask them to loan me a pitchfork.
But even if the mob is real, or I just can’t find it, every institution will be subject to criticism. It is OC’s job to perform image management, not OC’s students’ job. It would be irresponsible to silence the criticism.
And as for potential students… are we really going to insult their intelligence to the point where we believe they will take seriously everything they read on the internet?