Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article do not represent the views of Her Campus FSU.
On September 14, Senator John Thrasher earned a new title: President John Thrasher. Despite an outcry from students, professors, and alumn alike, the Board of Trustees still picked the politician over three other traditional academic leaders. This decision has created a distrust of the Board of Trustees as well as a swell of anger and hateful comments directed towards Thrasher. But here’s the deal: now that John Thrasher is elected as our next president to follow in Eric J. Baron’s footsteps, he’s here to stay (at least for a while).
That being said, we need to put forth the best of our proud Seminole spirit by accepting this new Seminole onto our campus. Hateful messages posted onto our social media sites will not remedy the situation. Fuming to our friends will not revoke the decision. When we began our first journey in joining the FSU family, we each made a pledge to “uphold the garnet and gold,” to live with the phrase “vires, artes, mores” as our beacon, our three burning torches, to lead both our academic and social lives both during and after our time spent here.
Florida State states that the purpose of upholding the garnet and gold “is to demonstrate the values of Florida State; good sportsmanship at athletic events, listening and respecting different opinions, and respecting the values and views of others.” So here we are at a time where these values will be tested; where we must respect the values and views of others; where the character we pledged to uphold will be tried against the character that we put forth; and finally, where we may just need to put aside our values to learn how to accept the values of others, and to put trust into the idea that these other values might just become positive for us as a collective body.
Yes, I understand why there are some of us who might be angry. It’s completely understandable that there are people who would be opposed to such a situation. However, the way we choose to focus that anger determines whether our efforts only succeed in trying to hurt others or whether our efforts succeed in getting real positive results. Better our school and maintain our values by putting those emotions into making something positive come from what can be perceived as a negative situation. Better yourself by channeling your thoughts into constructive actions rather than destructive ones.
The diversity of the backgrounds of our Seminole community create an atmosphere that can potentially become confrontational when different views clash. However, this same diversity can help us to learn from one another; to see the views of others and understand why they might feel the way they do; to accept views regardless of whether or not we agree with them as well. He’s our president now, and as our president he is also a fellow Seminole. As long as he holds that title, we each are asked to accept him as one of our own.