The longer I am here at A&M-Commerce, the more I am astounded by the relationship between the community and the university. Now, before anyone gets their panties in a wad, let me just point out that I am in no way pointing fingers at anyone. And if I am, I’m pointing them at everyone. I think the students, faculty and administration of this university are just as much to blame as the community.
For one of my classes, my midterm was to write about the history of Homecoming here on campus. So, I went up to the fourth floor of the library to do some research in the special collections and found some quite interesting things. At the 60th anniversary of Homecoming at A&M-Commerce in 1952, there were 7,000 people at the Homecoming game.
If you’ve been to a Homecoming game here in the past few years, you know that this is certainly not the case. In fact, Homecoming was altogether cancelled due to weather conditions last year, and there didn’t seem to be any type of response from anyone, whether you were a part of the university or the community.
I also found that there were so many different activities for Homecoming that involved the community, such as a Homecoming parade, banquets and dances that all enticed the community to come out. Don’t get me wrong, I know that we have events on campus that do encourage the community to come out, but when I go to these events, I only see a few people that aren’t associated with the university.
I wish I knew where that relationship between the University and the community disappeared to. I’m shocked that a school this size in a town this small is rarely recognized within the community, and when it is, it’s with negative connotations.
So I urge students, faculty and administration to do your best to communicate with the community. Go to local businesses, talk with people of the community and wear your school’s colors proudly. I’m proud to be a part of this University, and I hope that you all are able to say the same.
However, I also urge the community to get involved with the university. Come to sporting events, talk with students when you see them out and about and don’t be afraid to come to the community events at the university. While I’m proud to be a student of A&M-Commerce, I’m also proud to be part of the community of Commerce, Texas.
I hope that we can some day find a way to establish a positive relationship between the University and community and are able to maintain it. I feel that as a united community we would be able to do so much more for this area than what we are doing now.