With everything that has happened this year at Michigan State, I have been asked multiple times why I continue to further my education at a university with "such a bad reputation." Even with all the events that have unfolded during the Nassar case, and with the disappointing way the university's administration handled this case, I decided to stay and continue my education here.
The way this whole situation has been handled does not reflect the university as a whole. I have amazing professors who spent days and days in class talking about the whole situation, making sure that every student had all their questions answered.
Almost every department stepped up to provide extra resources to the entire student body. The Human Development and Family Studies Department (my major department) even partnered with the MSU Couple and Family Clinic to provide free counseling to all students, just to make sure that all students had someone to talk to if they needed it.
As a whole, this whole situation made students and staff alike step up and represent our school in a positive light. There were so many movements and protests started as a result because the students realized that we want our voices to be heard by our administration because we are the faces that represent this university to the world. On many of the trees on campus, you will find teal ribbons, which represent each of the survivors of the sexual assault case.
Even though we took sexual assault seriously before, now there are so many new protocols, programs and steps being taken to educate students even more.
Michigan State has provided so many opportunities to so many students. Even though I've been at MSU for only a few years, I have been provided with so many opportunities. I have been a part of a research study, discussions with professors and I have even had the opportunity to work with some amazing people in the theater department, which has given me an even closer look into my minor (theater). With all these opportunities, I have learned a lot about myself and what it is I may want to do with my life.
Even though some things have happened on my campus that I am not proud of, I am still proud to be a Spartan. We are not the only campus to have sexual assault, but our case is one of the most drastic I've heard of. The professors are still amazing and are all passionate about what they teach, and they care about their students. Students have shown how much they care about others and have become some of the strongest voices I have ever heard. It has shown me that the student body here are some of the kindest people I have ever met. Being a student at MSU provides us with so many opportunities and I am proud to bleed green and white.
