My recent article, "100 Things I'd Rather Do Than Go To Georgia Southern," has been heavily scrutinized for the content and the meaning that many have misinterpreted. Many have said that the article is bashing Georgia Southern and its students. However, there is no mention of this in the article. The meaning has been misconstrued and this article is intended to shed light on the meaning behind my original article.
On January 11, 2017, Armstrong State University's fate was in the hands of Georgia's Board of Regents. Students sat in classes with a cloud above them. A cloud that spoke uncertainty. By ten in the morning, the news rang down - the consolidation was going to go through.
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I (like many of my other Armstrong peers) was outraged. How could our university be taken out from under us like this? How could this matter be taken out of our hands? What does this mean for our academic future? What about tuition? There was nothing we could do at that point. Our voices failed to be heard, no matter how loud we were shouting. Our students were expected to bend over and take the merger. I had a different idea.
I wrote the article, "100 Things I'd Rather Do Than Go To Georgia Southern," in an attempt to start a conversation. To get people talking about the issue at hand. No Armstrong student asked for this. To this day, none of us want this. We did not apply to attend Georgia Southern, we applied to Armstrong State with the intention to stay for all four years. Some of the students cannot afford a spike in tuition, no matter how "low." Heck, some of us hardly can pay for our tuition. We applied for the vibe, the small classes, the name, the community, the school itself. This merger would change all of that.
The point is, we didn't ask to become Eagles. We didn't ask to become Eagles, we asked to become Pirates. We didn't ask to wear blue and gold, we asked to proudly wear maroon and gold. We didn't want to squawk like birds, we wanted to shout, "Arrgh!" like Pirates.
This consolidation is not hurting Georgia Southern or its students. The only people this consolidation is hurting is Armstrong and our students. We are going to lose our identity as students, and as a university.
However, this does not mean that we are attacking Georgia Southern itself. I am attacking the idea of our school disappearing from the face of the Earth, it just so happens that it will become your university. Many Georgia Southern students have brought to my attention that they themselves did not ask for this. I sympathize with that, but they have to understand that we did not either. We did not ask for any of this. All we asked for was to be a part of Armstrong, to be a part of the community we currently are a part of. The article is not a direct bash to Georgia Southern as many have perceived it to be. Rather it's one hundred things I'd rather do than have my university disappear. One hundred things I'd rather do than to bend over and allow this merger actually go through.
Armstrong is a community, a growing community. Armstrong is a beautiful school with beautiful people. Armstrong is the place I applied to. Armstrong is home.
