This is an overture, and I am over churning the same problems over and over and over again. It’s like we’ve been chewing on the same piece of gum for so long, we’ve gone numb to its flavour, and yet it still sticks.

When problems arise, the predisposition is to cast blame on the administration — the easiest target. Habitually unforgiving, this broad-sweeping tendency just spells laziness, stagnation. An innocent bystander is not so until proven guilty. We wait until the brevity of a situation reaches a threshold that, when hit, hails the inner humanitarian, unifying us. Until then, it’s not any one’s fault, rather it is taken to be the establishment’s. Really, one is propelling the problem if they do not speak up to work towards the change they expect to see.

Even still, I have witnessed this behaviour in my peers. Over the past few months, Reporter has addressed serious topics that have questioned the university in various ways. The coverage has ranged from Dr. Kontor’s case, student relation mishaps and administrative transparency to Title IX concerns regarding faculty — all matters enlivening the student body.

But why, when I witness something disagreeable in this place I have called home for quite a few years now, would I choose first to cast blame at its being?

As students attending this university, we are stakeholders of its name. I am part of RIT’s identity. We graduate into ambassadors of a brand we helped build merely by being involved in its evolution.

I am as much a part of this institution as it is now a part of who I am in my becoming. Each and every one of our voices contribute to the sound of this campus. We are the breath behind the tiger’s roar.

If something ever seems to go awry here, it is as much my responsibility as it is the faculty’s. We must accept what has slipped our attention and enact improvement. We craft the impact and impression RIT has on the world at large. We do this together as members of this community.

In this way, we are learning to hold ourselves accountable.