Letter to the editor: The great divide

To the students of USD,

There is a divide on our campus, and it resides in a flat-paved section of asphalt known as Cherry Street. Geographically, it divides the main campus and from athletics, and this is where the metaphorical divide also begins.

Now I confess that I am a proud member of both of these groups, as I am a student-athlete who studies theater. From my perspective, I play witness to a multitude of judgement from both groups.

When I first joined the theater department, I felt slightly ostracized, almost as if my being an athlete wasn’t welcome in that half of the building. At the same time I was recieving backlash for being the lone theater major in athletics, and I’m sure you can guess what I was being called.

However, over time athletes realized that my theater degree wasn’t so easy, going from working on productions in the Fine Arts to practice. This also occurred with the theater students, who realized that my schedule consisted of waking up at 4 a.m. and sometimes finishing homework at 1 a.m.

Over the last three years at this school, I’ve seen a problem that affects all of us at USD, which is tribalism, where groups of people with a shared interest separate themselves and view others judgmentally. Recently, due to the GAF resolutions and proposals, these judgements are starting to come into the spotlight. It revolves around a lack of pride in our school and the many things that it offers to students that are funded by GAF.

Both of my departments on campus have also noticed students leaving football games at halftime, even when we’re tied or even winning, or the low student attendance at theater events. But the reality is that there is a drop in activity in extracurriculars all over campus.

The truth is, athletics provides free tickets to students for all home events. Students take that for granted and show up for half of games even when we are playing SDSU. The other truth is that GAF helps fund the six productions that the theater department puts up every year, yet students rarely come see them.

Now I realize that I am grouping students into a generalization and even I myself am being a hypocrite because I do not do my best to attend many of the student functions on campus.

However, instead of supporting each other, we as students judge student-athletes, fine arts majors, Greek life, business students, med students and so on, not fully realizing that they are people too and have chosen this school to improve themselves just as we have.

Instead, we develop grudges against athletes even though they put in a lot of work just to act as entertainment for people on game days. Regardless of how we want the GAF money spent, we need to recognize that it supports the students.

The truth is that we are not united as a university. But with a little thought and respect for others, we can come together in pursuit of a better school and a happier student body. So, I ask of you students, please take a moment to realize that the ones that you judge have feelings and emotions just like you do. Please support them and take pride in this school, because it does more and offers more to you than you realize.

Sincerely,

Miles Bergner

Senior theater major