With discourses on the gentrification of city streets, the growing popularity of groups such as #BlackLivesMatter, and the divide between citizens and law enforcement, it seems as though today’s world is abound with divisions.
In contrast, colleges and universities (which up until very recent memory have been the most open to tolerance and equality) are (ideally) some of the best examples of how different people from different walks of life can interact peacefully for the good of all.
But what about the division that does take place at the University of South Carolina everyday?
The division has generated more than $1 billion and was recently promoted in this year’s State of the University address: the increasing partitioning of ideas, thoughts and people who choose different fields of study.
The introduction of the new $106.5 million Darla Moore School of Business, a new School of Journalism and Mass Communications building, the current construction of a new School of Law and numerous other plans to improve each department's physical academic infrastructure has been long overdue and is greatly appreciated among students. But it also brings with it the dangerous side effect of stunting interaction of different thought processes and knowledge groups.
Communicating ideas and talking to individuals who come from a different background is one of the best ways to learn to not only accept other points of view, or at least tolerate them, but also how to advance collectively as a society.
However, as we expand as a campus we move further away from the feeling of community and gravitate toward cliques of majors.
We hear all the time that the world is more interconnected now than ever before so shouldn’t it be that our campus is more connected and interactive as well? History has shown us over and over again that it takes the ability to combine different skills and knowledge to create truly innovative products that push the quality of life higher and higher. Walt and Roy Disney combined their creative and financial skills, respectively, to make Disneyland a reality. Steve Jobs, a moody business manager, and Steve Wozniak, a brainy computer engineer, worked together to bring us the first mass-produced personal computer.
I believe the school wants to promote interaction between its students, and there are plenty of programs offered by the university to promote relationship building on campus. But these programs themselves are confined to their own individual locations on campus and aren’t as universally known as they should be.
What, then, can we do to ensure that we can keep the amazing new facilities on campus and use them to their full capacity but still promote and foster engagement across, between and with students of different backgrounds, majors and organizations?
Well, to start we can begin with the place that is supposed to be the center of interaction: Russell House.
Intended to be a community for students across majors to explore and learn from one another, Russell House now, regretfully, seems less viewed as a place for discourse and more as a place to eat in between classes.
Perhaps we can focus our efforts on bringing the Gamecock community together through the redevelopment of the heart and soul of campus.
Who knows, maybe actively promoting interaction and understanding in college, which the university already does so well, and providing a universal place for it to occur will help alleviate some of the tensions that abound elsewhere in the country.