On Monday September 14, I was sitting in my English professor’s office. We were discussing an assignment when she received a notification on her cell phone saying there had been a shooting at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. A professor had been killed and the school was on lock-down. My initial reaction was, of course, sadness for their loss and fear for their safety, but after a moment we brushed it aside and moved on. After some reflection and time on my own university’s campus, I’ve realized I didn’t respond appropriately. It was easy for me to file that tragedy away with the others I so often hear about. It was easy for me to forget the incident as quickly as I had heard of it because I was safe in North Alabama. I was wrong to do that. Students just one state over lost a mentor. Faculty lost a friend, and there is a family that is grieving. This is not an incident that should be swept under the rug with all of the other horrible things that happen on a daily basis. As college students, we need to evaluate situations like this and learn from them. Here are a few lessons I personally have taken from it:
1. Take campus safety seriously.
At the University of North Alabama we are privileged to have such a competent and active police force. As students we are constantly receiving e-mails regarding on-campus safety such as defense classes, parking reminders, and trespass notices. While these may often get lost in the shuffle of the hundreds of e-mails we receive, we should absolutely stop and read these. Our safety on campus is incredibly important, not just for ourselves but for others. While walking on campus Monday, I got to watch two small children playing at the amphitheater. I love that our campus is a public place; I enjoy being able to walk freely and see visitors coming and going. However, this gives us as students and our faculty a higher level of responsibility. If someone is putting our campus in danger, it is our responsibility to notify the people who need to know and look out for our classmates and visitors.
2. UNA is my home.
When I’m walking to class at 8:00 a.m. with my eyes glazed over, chugging a mug of steaming coffee from Einstein’s, I often wish to be somewhere else. Well, one place in particular that is soft and quiet and allows for sleep. As I walked across campus on Monday though, and I saw those kids playing after I had had one on one time with a professor who genuinely wanted to help me, there was nowhere else in the world I wanted to be. I will never meet every student at UNA. I will probably never meet every professor at UNA, but they are all my family. On and off this campus, I am responsible to my university for my behavior and for how I represent it. I want my home to be safe and I want my fellow lions to feel safe. This school is my home, and I need to stop taking it for granted.
3. UNA is your home.
My first few weeks at UNA, I felt out of place. I didn’t know where anything was, and frankly I wasn’t thrilled to be here. UNA was my tentative fourth choice of school so at first I felt like I was settling. Now, I see how lucky I am to be here. UNA is a place for everyone to belong. There is an organization for everyone to be a part of and if there isn’t, you can create it! This is a place for you to be yourself, and this is a place where you should feel safe. You should never feel afraid on-campus; we have so many resources to prevent that. We have the UNA police, SNAP, Student Counseling Services, Title IX, the Infirmary, and more. All of these places are here so that you can feel safe and at home at your university. Don’t take these things for granted.
Our hearts go out to Delta State for their tragic loss of Dr. Ethan Schmidt. Let’s take their tragedy as a reminder to work towards keeping our own campus safe and making it the best it can possibly be. Roar Lions!
