Dear EMU: Let’s give ourselves some credit, ok? We spend a ton of time (and print space, in this paper) griping about our school’s problems. Why not talk about one of the things we are getting very right? Because in the eight semesters I have spent at this school, the one thing that has stood out to me again and again has been the uncommonly large number of people who sincerely care.

To give some examples: This past year, I had the honor to work with the Student Solar Committee, a group of students, faculty, and staff who have planned, engineered, lobbied, and fundraised for the installation of a new solar array to be built on top of Roselawn, which, when it is built this coming fall, will increase EMU’s solar generation capacity by 50%. And in my time at EMU, I have seen student leaders build active, high-energy clubs and initiatives from the ground up, over and over again. Take, for example, the growth of Black Student Union and Latino Student Alliance in the last several years, or the founding of the now highly-active Royals Lifting Club, or this newspaper, which has had its own incredible renaissance in the past couple of years.

But what makes this possible? How is it that there are so many good things happening at EMU all the time? We are a tiny school with not much money, so what is going on? I suspect it is simply because lots of people at this school can’t help but sincerely care about the world around them. I see this in the incredible amount of time and energy that our student leaders put into organizations and events that, to be honest, often feel kind of futile. I see it in the huge efforts our staff and administration make in keeping this institution running as frugally and effectively as possible. Serious shoutout to Greg Sachs — none of this would be here without him. And I see it in the many talented faculty who take serious pay cuts to work at EMU, presumably just because they believe in this community and its mission.

And it is not okay for us to sell ourselves short by taking this stuff for granted. The world we live in is tough on little schools like EMU, so we need to play to our strengths and pay attention to the wonderful things our community can do. And, speaking more broadly, I believe that local, community-focused work, like starting a club or organizing an event, is one of the very best ways we can work on large-scale problems as individuals.

So, if you have a good idea, you owe it to the school to do something about it. Talk to a friend, run it past a prof, just tell someone! At EMU, weird, off-the-wall ideas have a way of working out better than they ought to. And let’s all take a little bit of time to be grateful for how many people at our tiny school sincerely care.