Seniors: We need to step up

Last week, I was angry. When I received the e-mail from David Lindsey stating that Senior Ball, David's Pizza Night and the boat cruise were all canceled due to the actions at the Senior Rewind. I could not believe the University was again punishing my class. As far as I had known, less than 10 percent of the seniors were at the dance, yet I, along with my friends and classmates who did not go, were being punished. When I heard that David Lindsay was having a forum about this issue, I made sure to go, if only to ask why we were having a forum when the University was not going to change its mind. What I encountered instead was Mr. Lindsay sympathetic to our frustration. He clarified what exactly happened at the dance, and seniors, it was not pretty. Probably the story that disgusted me the most was how our fellow classmates degraded the Gonzaga staff because we, the students, "pay their salary." I know that most of us would never say this, but the fact of the matter is that some of our fellow seniors harmed our staff and our school. We cannot and should not tolerate this.

Mr. Lindsay also pointed out that it was not just the Senior Rewind, but that the event was just the last straw in a string of poor, inappropriate behavior by other senior classes. As Mr. Lindsay pointed out, the bus company that normally takes seniors to and from the boat cruise is refusing to serve us this year. Apparently, they have had enough of students puking and urinating in the back of bus. The Knitting Factory does not want to host the Senior Ball because they too, like the staff at the Rewind, suffered the indignity of being told they were inferior because they were not "Gonzaga grads." My fellow seniors, enough is enough! Based on what Mr. Lindsay said, it is evident that our reputation as a school has been severely tarnished by the idiocy of both our fellow seniors and seniors past.

Now, Mr. Lindsay stated that he was hopeful we could get these events back. But at this point, it's more than just getting back our senior events. A part of what is at stake is our legacy as the class of 2011 at Gonzaga. We did not ask for this responsibility, or the burden of rectifying the wrongs of other classes. However, if we want to have these events and if we want to have a community reputation that says we are not a bunch of drunken, elitist and privileged college students, then we need to, as a class, correct past mistakes.

The first step in all of this is getting together and coming up with ideas that will allow us to correct these mistakes. I know our GSBA President, Pat Presley, will be holding a forum this Friday for seniors. I strongly encourage anyone who cares about the senior events or even simply our reputation to go to this meeting. Bring your ideas. I am bringing my idea of doing some service to the companies like the bus company or the Knitting Factory to show that not all Gonzaga grads are awful.

I can understand that for some, this is not what they want to do. I have friends who are so fed up they refuse to listen to anything except for outright opposition to this decision. However, this is counterproductive and only reinforces the point that some of our classmates still lack the maturity in order to come to the point where we can get what we want which is getting all of the senior events restored. If people are really mad and really want these events back, we should see a lot of participation in the upcoming forums. I hope that expectation becomes a reality.