On Tuesday, March 22, Vice President for University Advancement David Macmillan and Vice Provost for Student Life Peter Novak addressed the ASUSF Senate to reveal a new branding campaign for USF, much to the excitement of the gathered senators and executive board members. The highlight of the campaign, however, came toward the end of the presentation, when Mr. Macmillan unveiled the new university tagline to replace USF’s familiar “Educating minds and hearts to change the world” slogan. The new tagline will be a pithy
“Changing the world from here.”
Coincidentally, this internal redevelopment of the university’s image to the outside world happened against a backdrop of globally significant, noteworthy events.
Students coming off from a weeklong spring holiday met a flurry of news reports describing the triple disasters of a magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the Japanese coast, a subsequent tsunami that leveled entire cities, and a resulting battle to control a ravaged nuclear power plant whose radioactive materials have yet to be totally contained.
At the same time, in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, stubborn leaders and long-in-power self-appointed rulers prepared to face off against their own people chafing for the freedom and successful revolution they witnessed in Tunisia and Egypt. Meanwhile, Western powers stood by nervously as they saw political and economic allies resort to desperate methods of suppression to retain their legitimacy.
At home, President Obama was slammed with criticism from both political extremes: from the right for yielding control of an allied offensive of Libya to the French while conducting a goodwill tour in South America, and from the left for refusing to approve a UN resolution condemning Israel’s plans for colonization on disputed Palestinian territory.
In very few instances has the connection between our university’s mission and its applicability to the real world been so apparent. In earlier issues, the Foghorn has not hesitated to speak on our mission and the responsibility of the student body to take it to heart, and we do not hesitate now.
On the occasion of the launching of USF’s new “image”, we at the Foghorn would like to emphasize one more time that changing the world for the better does not have to wait until one has a diploma in her hand. Whether though political involvement, awareness campaigns, research on human rights abuses, service learning, or studying abroad, change is quite possible now as a student of USF. To sit back and watch the world unravel (or, depending on how you see it, improve) without giving a thought to how you might have a hand in the shaping of history is a waste of tuition, intellect, creativity, and talent.
Seeing as how the administration’s new effort to reach out to the community is underway, we a students need to continue thinking about how we, right now, can change the world from here on the mountaintop, and, once we pass through St. Ignatius one last time degree in hand, from out there in the world.
Editor-in-Chief: Heather Spellacy
Chief Copy-editor: Natalie Cappetta
Opinion Editor: Vincente Patino
