By Karis Rogerson
Last week we were all bombarded with a series of emails bearing the subject line, “Guess who’s pregnant!”
No, this isn’t an article about how annoying it is when people hit ‘Reply all’ to a campus-wide email, although there’s certainly enough material for one of those. This is about the content of the first email we got: spirit week.
I almost hate to say this, because I’m all for school spirit and I think we here at Asbury could use a lot more of it. But the truth is, I think spirit week should have been left safely in high school, where it belongs. We’re adults now, at least half of us over the age of 20, not brand-new teenagers, and, let’s face it, Asbury just doesn’t have enough school spirit for a spirit week.
There are some things that even I have to say are a little too young for college students. I’m down for school dances and even Last Man Standing, because sometimes you just need to let loose a little. But “Tacky Tuesday” and “Identity Theft Thursday?”
I don’t think so. It takes me back to that horrific time in high school when I dyed half my hair yellow and the other half green for spirit week. Not my finest moment.
But the even bigger problem is the lack of school spirit around. You can’t force people to be excited about something they’re not already pumped about. Asbury has a pretty unfortunate level of spirit. The poor attendance at sporting events but, even more telling, low attendance at events like class retreats, shows that we could definitely be more spirited.
The activities board and administration is doing a good job trying to increase school spirit. The tailgates before sporting events, as well as the increased number of events every week, have been excellent attempts at getting people more involved.
Asbury is genuinely trying to amp up the community we tout so often as a major feature of campus life, and I applaud that. And spirit week might be a great idea, but if we’re still at the point where we have to trick people into opening a spirit week email with a subject line like “Guess who’s pregnant?” we’re not there yet.
On that note, was that subject line even necessary? We are adults here, and I for one don’t super appreciate that tactic. I opened the email because I thought it might be information about someone, like a well-loved faculty or staff member, was having a baby. The joking title, “Made you look!” made me feel as though I was being called some sort of nasty gossip-monger.
Honestly, if you want to send out an email about spirit week, call it that. But wait a few years, until Asbury has enough school spirit to actually be involved in spirit week. Or don’t do it at all, because remember, this is college, not high school.