Be Good. Be Orange.

Gabriella Nanson

To be orange means to be responsible.  Being responsible is taking care of yourself and others and taking responsibility for your education, your friendships, and your role in the community.  To attain a degree from OSU is responsibility at its finest.  To graduate with my degree from OSU, installs in me pride, in knowing I can do anything I set my mind to, but also to go forth and share my knowledge of what it means to be responsible, whether that be with coworkers, friends, or family.  Taking responsibility is to only be responsible for actions that have positive outcomes, not actions that have negative effects.  Each year we grow older and more mature, we have a new and improved sense of what responsibility is and what we should be doing to fulfill that duty.  Just like this class, as we grew and became more open to ideas, we are constantly learning what it means to be responsible, and how over time our perceptions can change for the better as long as we are open to change.  We all have different meanings of what it means to be orange.  That’s what is unique about ethics is that there is never one right answer, just like there is no right answer to what it means to be orange, but I think we all have a good idea of what it means to ourselves.

Anyone who attends Oregon State University, as an undergrad, or a graduate can be orange, as well as faculty members.  Being responsible also is to demonstrate skills that a student has learned in his or her major and minor, and any extra skill or concept one may have learned while acting and participating in extra curricula’s on campus such as a club, sport, job, or volunteer activity.  Taking skills learned in classes and applying them to various situations while having a basic understanding of knowledge to share ones own morals is to be orange.

To help others succeed and be responsible is also being orange.  To go beyond the call of duty when not called upon to help and to just be there for others when they need it is demonstrating responsibility.  Sacrificing what one might want to help another in ones community demonstrates being orange.  This could be shown as going out to frozen yogurt when a friend who is having a bad day after finding out they failed their midterm, when you in fact need to be studying for your own midterm.  Giving of oneself to others in a time of need, and also when not in time of need, out of the kindness of ones heart is to be orange.  The professor student relationship is the definition of orange, as they are constantly pushing each other to be better, yet helping one another succeed every day.

I have an idea of what it means to be responsible, but what do others think about responsibility?  Dictionary.com “believes responsibility is the ability or authority to act or decide on one’s own, without supervision.”  I agree with this definition, to an extent.  We as humans do have choices in life that we alone have to make, whether it be to give the money back to the person who dropped in it line ahead of you at the supermarket who did not know they dropped it, to wait another two minutes at the red light at three in the morning, or to even go to class.  We have lots of choices, and we make them based on what our morals and values are.  Actions that are prohibited under the definitions of what it means to be responsible include taking responsibility for something such as mass murder.  Being responsible is to take responsibility for good deeds that have positive outcomes, for yourself and for the community.  So committing crimes and then taking responsibility for them is not what I mean by being responsible, since that does not have positive outcomes by committing a crime.  We have rules and laws for a reason, and we are responsible for following them, and making sure our neighbors follow them too.

We don’t have mom and dad to hold our hand throughout life, so we have to rely on the values we have been taught growing up to be able to make those educated decisions.  Educated decisions are those decisions that we make based on our set of knowledge and how much we know about a certain subject, and our experiences that we learn from here at OSU.  Values are what we live by each day, that help us chose right from wrong.  Choosing decisions that are considered ‘right’ will lead us in the direction we want to head in life and choosing decisions that are ‘wrong’ are those that will hinder us in a way we do not want to head.  With the global warming that is happening, we cannot say that one specific human being is responsible for causing it.  We all are responsible for causing it.  Even people who recycle, ride their bike instead of driving a car, and take quicker showers, they all have the responsibility to tell their neighbor how to be more environmentally conscious.  When discussing issues of responsibility, we all have a part to play, as long as that part has a positive outcome and we are helping.  Responsibility cannot and should not hurt, or else that is not being responsible, in my eyes.

Being a responsible student is taking matters into your own hands and learning as much as you can to get good grades and that diploma.  Being a good student in the university is sharing your ideas with other students and growing off each other.  Being a good student in the community is to give back your time to those who need it.  If we are orange, that means we have made it a lot farther than others in this world, and we have a responsibility to give back to the community, and make sure it is a better place.  We take our knowledge we have acquired over the years and use it for the better, tell others, and do good deeds with it.  We are responsible and do good deeds because those actions have positive outcomes and help others, and in return helps ourselves feel good about ourselves because we enjoy doing good for others.

The goal of responsibility is for everyone to take charge of their life and realize that no one else is going to do it for them.  We all have to grow up at some point, and take responsibility for our actions, and learn from our mistakes.  We are constantly growing and learning as human beings, and finding out our responsibilities, in which OSU and being orange helps us find.           

Being orange also takes place in the form of nonverbal communication.  Certainly one of the most important skills one will learn is how to communicate effectively, but we are also taught how to communicate nonverbally.  With the recent change in Oregon State’s logo, we as a community are showing the rest of the nation what it means to be orange.  By changing our logo sends a message that it is time for a change and to revamp what we already have going.  Now, we don’t all necessarily need to love the new logo, but we all have a responsibility to live up to the values that it represents, which are fierce, unstoppable, and headstrong.

The new beaver logo shows a the value of headstrong, as it keeps fighting and never gives up just like the athletes never give up when competing, and as students never give up in the classroom.  When students develop new ideas or show bravery each day, they show this by going to practice and to class.  When students or athletes fail, they get back up and try again, showing bravery.  Students at OSU don’t give up, we keep pushing ourselves to be better and strive for the best.  When we fail, we know we can keep trying, as our classmates and professors want to help us succeed.  Our professors give us the tools to be confident in our studies, just as our coaches prep our athletes to strive for the best and have confidence.  Students show fearlessness in their studies, extra curricula’s, and work on campus and off, just as athletes show fearlessness at practice, while competing, and in their studies as well.  The logo represents many of OSU students and professors values such as responsibility, just as it should.  As an outsider looking to come to OSU, and become ‘orange’ they can see what the school has to offer scholastically and athletically just by looking at the logo.  I am a proud student wearing the new logo and showing everyone I know and the rest of the student body I am fearless, headstrong, and brave.

Responsibility is an important value because the world runs on expecting everyone to be responsible and without it, there would be no order in life.  We assume that as human beings we all trust one another to be a responsible person.  Without responsible people, nothing would get done.  We would have no laws, no rights, no freedom, and much more.  What comes with responsibility are experiences and failure.  We know we are responsible when we fail, then we try again to be better next time, so we can prove we are responsible, such as doing better on the next midterm.  Being responsible applies to small and big actions, moral decisions, and everyday individual choices we make here at OSU and outside of school.  This is where everyone is forced to choose whether or not to go beyond the call of just being responsible.  We all have choices to make each day, and we base those off what we think it means to be responsible.  Everyone that is orange has a duty to tell others what it means to be orange, and within that what it means to be responsible.