Jumbo Jewelry

It's refreshing to see the Racquet is actually writing articles that pertain to students and are socially progressive, sans grammar mistakes nonetheless! Plus one for you!

Quoting Nicki Minaj in a journalistic article defending yourself and your school is embarrassing. You also contradict yourself quite a bit in this article. Definitely won't be reading your articles anymore.

Another knothead that doesn't know the difference between atheism and religion.

I am proud to be a UW-L student, but I have to say that I mostly disagree with the original article. I will concede that the article was written with a good intent, and its statement is an important one - that UW-L is both a high-quality and relevant institution. However, decrying our relevance in relation (or in opposition) to other Wisconsin universities is the wrong way to go about delivering that statement. I can tell that the author felt slighted by the Huffington Post article, but honestly I'm not quite sure why. Really, this whole thing seems like a non-issue. The bigger issue - to me, anyway - is that a lot of students (our author included) feel the need to assert our university's relevance over the relevance of other schools. But seriously, why? Does anyone really gain anything from articles like "I'd Rather be an Eagle" besides a transient sense of pride? And are we really that sophomoric in that we need this pride to feel good about our academics and our university?

Through my experience as a UW-L student, the best way that I've found to feel validated about my school is to celebrate the academic strides of our students and faculty. Instead of feeling like we need to prove our significance by comparing our prices for housing and alcoholic beverages to those of other UW schools, why not show the importance of a UW-L degree by doing something amazing with it? I think that students from UW-L (and all UW schools, for that matter) sometimes forget that the professors who teach our classes are esteemed professionals in their fields of study. Not only are they resident experts in the disciplines that we've chosen to study, they are a direct gateway to the professional field, no matter what you're studying. Every day that we sit passively in class and absorb the information they give us is a wasted day; as students, we should be doing everything that we can to collaborate with our resident experts to do something truly great with the opportunities we've been given. Why not conduct undergraduate research? Why not start or join an organization related to your field to benefit members of the La Crosse community? There are virtually limitless opportunities to use your major to do something incredible, and only by taking advantage of these opportunities can we truly prove that our university is not only relevant, but of the highest accolade.

Ultimately, we shouldn't feel the need to constantly compete with our fellow Wisconsin schools. UW-Madison is an excellent university. UW-La Crosse is an excellent university. Our focus should be less on repeating these statements with our words and more on proving them through our actions.

As the advisor for SVA I'd like to correct several of the more important errors. First, the club began with just two members: Daryl Thomas and Reece Rykal. Spencer Neibur has graduated and is no longer officially affiliated with the club. Interested individuals should use the contact to the club's current president, Brian Manske.
Carol Oyster