Another semester has started and with that comes a lot of changes.
For instance, I am the new editor of The Reveille.
The University is undergoing some needed changes to campus buildings and to Death Valley. It also has received a lot of national media attention, thanks in large part to the 2003 national football champions.
As the Tigers prepared to play Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl, the national media turned their attention to LSU, but they didn’t mention anything about our academics.
On Jan. 5, the attention continued as the papers talked about our win. The New York Times even allowed Chancellor Mark Emmert to editorialize about LSU, although he said in the past he was denied the chance to write an editorial. It took the Tigers winning the national championship for the most read newspaper in the country to accept an editorial about our university.
In his editorial, he said southern schools are noted for their athletics, but rarely for their academics. I agree with Emmert completely because I believe that with our football team playing for the national championship, the media should have focused more on LSU as a learning institution instead of just a school with an excellent football program.
If not for the very talented Nick Saban and the LSU Tigers, LSU may not have had the opportunity to truly show the nation what is happening at this University.
During the past two weeks, I had the opportunity to speak with Emmert and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Risa Palm. They both spoke about exciting things happening at LSU outside of the football realm. Both mentioned Ed Seidel, who is the new head of the LSU Center for Applied Information Technology and Learning. Seidel is from the Albert Einstein Institute in Potsdam, Germany. The Reveille reported in August that the University had to compete with the California Institute of Technology and Ohio State University to bring Seidel to LSU. Seidel has brought with him several members of the AEI to develop new kinds of technology.
People are starting to learn of LSU through Seidel’s work, but there still is more to be done.
Emmert said he has received several phone calls and e-mails from other universities about the progress LSU is making in the academic field.
Our campus administrators are doing their best to promote LSU to our peer universities so we can move up in rankings and attract more professors and students.
I think it is our responsibility as students and future alumni to do everything in our power to help LSU succeed. It may not seem like we can do much at all, but after speaking with Emmert and Palm, I know they would appreciate any help we can give them.
As graduation gets closer, I find myself doing just what I need to graduate, but I have realized that is not good enough. My GPA will not matter when I graduate, but if I can show my employer something I developed or improved with help from my professors and this University it will speak volumes about me as well as the talent this University has.
It may seem like the Flagship Agenda will not benefit those of us who will be graduating soon, but just think about when you are getting a job and someone recognizes LSU for more than the athletic programs.
A degree says so much more about you than that you graduated. It speaks volumes about who you are and what you should be capable of doing. Wouldn’t it be nice to have people recognize the four or five years you spent earning a degree — not just your school’s football abilities? And how much nicer would it be if you could tell your grandchildren you helped make LSU what it is now?
Stand up for you and your future, help our administrators and campus leaders make LSU stand for something besides good athletics.