Be Good. Be Orange.

Submitted by Chelsea Stilwell

Oregon State University promotes the campaign slogan “Be Orange” throughout the entire OSU campus. But what exactly does it mean to “Be Orange?” Many would say that the slogan is used in reference to OSU sporting events. When I first saw those words, for instance, I immediately pictured a stadium full of OSU students all wearing orange and cheering on our football team. Now I understand that the words “Be Orange” mean so much more. “Being Orange” is developing knowledge in several different areas of study.  This is revealed by the goals of the Baccalaureate Core here at Oregon State:

“Through the Baccalaureate Core at Oregon State University, students explore knowledge in many fields across the university and learn to think critically about significant issues–locally, nationally, and globally.  Students will learn how knowledge is made in fields from science and mathematics to the arts, geography and political science.  While courses in the major provide expertise in a specific field of study, courses in the Bacc Core offer students a broad sense of what it means to be an educated person and to be well equipped for the challenges of the workplace, citizenship, and constructing a life with meaning.”

This blog will explain the importance of the “Orange” value of knowledge and how it applies to the entire OSU community and gives special meaning to earning a degree from OSU.

All higher education institutions would support the value of knowledge; it is the ultimate reason for getting an education. Oregon State upholds a specific kind of knowledge, however, that many other universities do not. We value developing knowledge in multiple fields of study, or having a diverse intellect, rather than just focusing on the requirements of our majors. What kinds of knowledge? The kinds of knowledge the Bacc Core encourages are: foundational areas of education and writing clearly and convincingly, biological and physical sciences, literature and the arts, the social sciences, the humanities, addressing contemporary issues using a multi-disciplinary approach, and complexity of structures, systems, and ideologies that sustain discrimination and the unequal distribution of power. These are all clearly explained on the OSU Bacc Core Values website as well. These types of knowledge are important because in the process of learning different areas of study, we develop new perspectives and are able to consider other points of view. This is an extremely useful skill when it comes to developing ethical arguments. This critical skill allows one to consider and challenge possible opposing arguments before they are made, which will strengthen one’s argument. It is also important to acquire different perspectives so that you are able to better understand your own values and be able to coherently explain them to others.

Having a diverse intellect allows you to be competent in many disciples and provides more opportunities. A biology major, for example, may decide to take an ethics class simply to meet their Bacc Core requirement and realize that philosophy is much more interesting to them than biology. Any of the Bacc Core courses could also provide students with possible back-up plans if they do not get the job they wanted directly after college. I, for one, am a pre-medical student and know that chances of making it to medical school are slim thus, thanks to my Bacc Core classes, I have designed a variety of back-up plans B-Z that I would also enjoy, like becoming a scuba dive instructor in Hawai’i.

The Orange value of knowledge applies not only to OSU students, but also to anyone who directly contributes or contributed to the OSU learning experience. I included the term “directly” because, for example, I do not consider people who simply contribute funding to the school and have never even been to the campus as “Being Orange.” I don’t consider these people as “Orange” because they do not know/represent the values of Being Orange if they have never even been to the campus interacting with our community. The Orange community includes students, professors, graduate students, and alumni. In that case, do custodial staff members count as being Orange? The answer to this question depends on whether they actively support and demonstrate the values of Being Orange or not. Anyone who was “Orange” once will continue to be “Orange,” as long as they continue to live by the values of being orange; knowledge being a leading component.

To have a college degree means that you have demonstrated hard work, perseverance, and gained a profounder knowledge. To have a degree from OSU, however, means that you have elected to exceed the general requirements for your major and have broadened your knowledge through new, unfamiliar classes and experiences. When I go out into the world, I want potential employers to see my résumé and think, “Wow, OSU grad, she must really strive to expand her knowledge and develop new ideas about trying new things. She obviously goes above and beyond the call of duty; she would really improve our business!” I want an Oregon State degree to put me ahead of the curve; to make people recognize my comprehensive knowledge before they even meet me. Not only do I want my degree to put me ahead in my career, but also I want to continue my skills learned in the Bacc Core classes and continually improve them. These courses are so important to me because I never would have realized the deeper existence of ethical issues if I had not taken PHL 205. Now I am able to see ethical arguments in every single decision I make, as long as I really think about it. This skill will continually benefit myself-and others-as I bring it with me in the path to becoming an intellectually diversified ethical doctor.

Oregon State challenges and inspires its students to go above and beyond their original expectations by exploring knowledge in new subjects through personal experiences. Students are encouraged to find interests they never knew they had in subjects they knew nothing about, which creates new, previously unrealized opportunities. Being Orange is to develop a deeper knowledge in many disciplines in order to gain new perspectives, and therefore be able to better uncover and explain or argue ethics.

Bacc Core Goals & Values webpage: http://oregonstate.edu/main/baccalaureate-core/goals-and-values

Psychologist, Dan Gilbert does an impeccable job at explaining to an audience what happiness means exactly. What Gilbert presents about the word “happy”, is very insightful. After viewing this video, I’ve learned that happiness is not as clear-cut and dry as many believe. Ultimately, we all have different definitions of what it means to be happy.

Dan Gilbert makes and argument when he says, “we synthesize happiness but we think happiness is a thing to be found.” Gilbert expresses that we have a strong belief that synthetic happiness is what we make when we don’t get what we want. He goes on to say that society has a strong belief that synthetic happiness is of an inferior kind.

There is a strong bond between happiness and ethics. Ethics are decided upon, and if you “do good”, it brings about a moral, positive result, meaning that ethics contribute to our happiness as a whole. I feel that ethical people are more satisfied with life, especially after watching “The Surprising Science of Happiness”. I also think that the other way around; happiness leads to ethical behavior. If someone is not satisfied with their life, he or she is more likely to do unethical things out of spite or cynicism, merely wanting to get back or get even with someone who appears to be happier and more content with his or her life.

I believe that while there definitely is a relationship between ethics and happiness, we all have those different definitions of happiness and we all require a variety of levels of things in life to make us happy and satisfy us. Gilbert does such an insightful job at challenging the idea that society will be unhappy if we do not get what we want. He expresses that even when we do not get what we want and things do not go as planned, we still feel genuine happiness because of how our “psychological immune system” works.

To come to a close, I do think that happiness requires ethics. I actually consider the overall goal of ethics to be happiness. Happiness is a good moral character; it means complete, ample virtue.

–Molly Amo

By Kyle West

Being an orange student at Oregon State University is preparing me to be successful in my future career within the construction industry.  Success is defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose or the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted.  Success is the value I chose because we all are aiming to be successful in life and our degree from OSU is our ticket to get there.  There is a reason why I attend this school because I know that success will follow after my time spent here at OSU.  As a student, I have gained knowledge, respect, and responsibility within the past two quarters that I’ve been attending our “be orange” institution.  Being orange not only defines us as students at OSU but also shows our strong values we have towards the university.  I believe that the education that I deserve and acquire here on campus is the stepping-stone in my lifetime that will set my future up for success.

Oregon State University is one of the top leading schools in the nation.  When we talk about success related to our school it could mean success in a few different ways.  Our university is successful because they have created an institution that thousands of young adults want to attend so they can leave here with a degree that means something to them and to the work force.  OSU also has some of the most successful and knowledgeable professors in the nation and as students we are lucky to be taught by such successful people.  OSU’s core values consist of accountability, diversity, integrity, respect, and social responsibility.  Our institution believes that apart of being orange relates to these five core values and I do agree with them, but success should be added to their list.  If I were an incoming student at OSU, success would be a core value that would catch my eye because every student wants to be successful within his or her time here at this university.  I want my degree to show that I am a hardworking individual and have accomplished something that many people don’t have the opportunity to do in their lives.  Without OSU I would not be orange and I believe that it would be much harder to become successful without graduating with a college degree.

Success not only means having a bright future but it also means being successful within my courses I take here at OSU.  From attending construction speaker meetings here at OSU, I’ve learned that top construction employers are looking for graduates from our school for promising careers and internships.  They believe that Oregon State University teaches the required courses that help develop our critical thinking skills in order to become successful within a certain company.  Many of the guest speakers at these meetings are OSU alumni and they have experienced within their company that OSU graduates are some of the top students they choose to become apart of their company.  Oregon State alumni also represent our university and their success reflects on our institution showing current students that your degree will set you up for a bright future.  Our degree shows that as students we have gained an amount of knowledge for us to be successful within a certain field.  Students take on a lot of responsibility towards earning their degrees and it shows that we are capable of difficult tasks and that we are efficient and dedicated learners.  With the knowledge that we have gained through courses here at OSU, employers know that we have put in hard work and dedication so that we will have a successful future.

Before this assignment I never considered what the “Be Orange” signs were about or the values that were behind being orange because I had never thought much about being orange.  I do see myself as a student here at Oregon State but I believe that our “be orange” campaign is to attract new students so that they feel like they will belong within our institution if they choose Oregon State.  I have set values that I do cherish here at OSU like success, responsibility, and knowledge, but I don’t believe that the institution is trying to attract current students to question these signs.  I do believe that I am orange because I belong to this university as a student but I don’t believe that the slogan “be orange” will ever have an effect on students after they graduate.  OSU Alumni would rather take pride in the color orange and remembering the memories they shared while here at OSU.  I don’t believe that graduating students are voicing their opinions to their friends and family letting them know about how to be orange and certain values they have towards being orange.  We are already orange in our own ways.  When we submitted our Advanced Tuition Deposit to confirm OSU as our school we became orange at that moment in time.  After that it doesn’t make sense for the institution to tell students to “be orange” since I believe we already are.  Once I graduate and become an Oregon State University Alumni, I will always see my self as orange, but I don’t understand why we have signs that say, “be orange” when every student attending and alumni have their own orange moments.   Each student has their own values that they share at Oregon State and I believe that success should be apart of each student.

Ultimately, being orange shows a sense of pride that each student should have whether you are a current student or alumni.  Being orange shows that you are successful, will be successful, or already are successful.  Our great university gives each student the tools and critical thinking skills that we will use after we graduate from OSU.  We are being taught to be successful within our majors and to always work hard towards are goals so that we can have bright futures.  Being orange is not only wearing your colors on game day, it’s taking pride in your school and in your education here at OSU.  To Oregon State students, orange isn’t just a color, it’s our life.  As an OSU student I am certain that the education that I am receiving here will give me the successful future that I have always dreamed for.

Happy Birthday, Mr Rogers!

Published by: Ariel Chadbourne

Here at Oregon State we have a very specific message to potential and current students: that the students here aim to “Be Orange”. There is no definition as to what it means to “Be Orange”, but as an Oregon State student I think that being “orange” is what you make it. To me, when I think of the term “Be Orange”, I think success, equality, and opportunity. It is amazing how two little words can give students something to strive for. What is more intriguing is that every person at Oregon State has a different vision of being “orange”, so this term can be inspirational to every individual here. But what is it about getting a degree at Oregon State that is so valuable? Ever since I was a little girl I knew that I was going to go to Oregon State when I grew up and it had absolutely nothing do with what classes Oregon State had to offer, it was more about the tradition. It wasn’t until later when I got closer to graduating from high school that I realized that I needed to pick a school that was going to benefit my future the most. After applying and getting accepted into 5 different universities, I picked Oregon State because I thought that it would give me the best opportunity to succeed. I want a degree that will open up doors for me that otherwise wouldn’t be possible. So Oregon State isn’t just a university, it is an opportunity. Be an Opportunity, Be Orange.

Opportunity as a value can be very broad. What kind of opportunity am I looking for? Just the word opportunity can mean so many things, but to me it means the chance to advance in not only my education but also in my business ventures and my ability to build relationships with people here on campus. Being able to expand my education has always been a priority in my life, and after changing my major once already I know that Oregon State really allows me to do that. Also, I am aspiring to be a business woman, and Oregon State has some great connections to internships which would give me the opportunity to gain some knowledge on starting my own business. Also, why does “Be opportunity, Be Orange” not really flow right? This is a value that is really important to me and I almost changed the value that I was using so that it would flow better.  I ended up going with “Be an Opportunity, Be Orange” which isn’t the normal format but I think that in order for the phrase to be versatile it should be able to include every value.

What does being “orange” have to do with opportunity? Well, other people that are “orange” all have the same opportunities as me when it comes to the classes they choose and the places they go around campus. When someone starts at Oregon State they start with a blank slate so they are an opportunity in themselves to grow as an Oregon State student and they could be an opportunity for Oregon State to add another doctor or lawyer or biologist into the world. Whatever route you decide to go as a student here it will open up an opportunity for you to succeed.

The great thing about opportunity as a value is that it is for everyone, and in this case it is for everyone at Oregon State, including the staff. This can apply to present and future instances. We decide on a major which opens up opportunities to take certain classes and gain knowledge in certain fields, then later down the road allows for us to get a job. The opportunities are almost endless with every decision you make while you are at Oregon State. This value is important because it gives students something to strive for and with every university being a little bit different the opportunity here is different than the opportunity that you would get anywhere else.

If an alien crashed from the sky I would probably first off tell him that his name is going to be Bob. Simply because I think it would be awesome to meet an alien named Bob. But from there I really believe that I could push the importance of opportunity on Bob by showing him that he could start with a blank state and have the same opportunity at Oregon State to learn as we do, as long as he could speak English. I would show him all the great things that people can learn here at Oregon State and make him want to have that opportunity. Could you imagine an alien being a sports caster or a therapist?

There are some requirements though in order to take advantage of opportunity including the want to move forward and having dreams or goals that you aim to reach. If somebody were to go out and start doing drugs and things that make them back-track in their goals then they probably won’t have the same opportunity as those who are focus specifically on school and succeeding. Also, depending on the roles of people at Oregon State the values vary minutely. For example, opportunities for students are focused more toward education and building relationships, but as a staff member the opportunity is the ability to spread your knowledge.

In the end, I really want Oregon State students to take this value and let it trigger the light bulb in their head that they have so many options while they are in school and that if they don’t like the path they are currently on then they have the opportunity to change their major and take a different path. That being said, I really would like to see people triggering their talents and go to school for that rather than going for a field they aren’t even interested in because it could give them the opportunity to have a bigger paycheck.

With all of that being said, in order to “Be Orange” you must be a student or staff member here at Oregon State. In order to be a member of Oregon State I really think it is crucial to accept the value of opportunity because it is a big part of moving forward in life and being successful at Oregon State because it means taking advantage of what the campus has to offer. Now this means that people who don’t go to college or want to grow as a person would not be “orange” and therefore would not have the same opportunity that I am referring to.

With all that being said, I whole-heartedly believe that the value of opportunity is crucial for everyone’s future. Opportunity can be anything from the food you choose to eat while you are here on campus or your decision to exercise or not all the way to big life decisions like your career. Every choice you make can come with a different opportunity whether it be big or small it is still significant.

I do think that my choice to reword the phrase in order to fit my value rather than fitting my value to the phrase was a good idea because I think that it is important that students really take advantage of all that Oregon State has to offer in order to get the whole experience. The value of opportunity is one that students should not take for granted and need to be opened up to. In order for students to really see what is out there I think that part of your BAC core should include joining a club for a term. Students get so stressed and think that they don’t have time to go out and join clubs or sororities and really miss out on many opportunities. You could be the next doctor, lawyer, or finder of a cure for cancer. It is up to you to take the opportunities given to you at Oregon State and, in-turn, be an opportunity yourself. Be an Opportunity, Be Orange.

Submitted by Jaclyn Hill

Oregon State University has a new logo, a fierce beaver that is said to represent the key characteristics of Oregon State, as laid out by the athletics department: heritage, strong, victorious, united, innovative, tenacious, dedicated, integrity. As this rebranding was supported and funded by the athletic department, it may be assumed that this rebranding stands to represent the athletics department of the university alone. However, Director of Equipment Operations, Steve McCoy says, “This represents the whole school. Logos, color combos, everything. We don’t want the team to look good. We want the university to look good.” And it is clear that the university agrees, as the new logo proudly flies over the Memorial Union and is on the front page of the school website, among other places.
Furthermore, the school branding requirements say that a brand is, “A consistent visual identity supports a strong brand for Oregon State University by creating a unified look in print and electronic communications. People notice visuals before they’ve read a word. That’s why it’s so important for visuals to immediately identify our communications as coming from Oregon State.”
This generalized pairing of Oregon State and the new branding is problematic because the school assumes that its logo, designed by people other than the student body, stands to represent the qualities required to be a successful member of the Oregon State community. The new logo does not, however, adequately represent the values of Oregon State and what it means to be Orange. It is based heavily on the values associated with athletics—about winning at all costs, being fierce, fighting. Instead, however, the students at Oregon State stand in unity with one another to solve problems, both within the university and outside of it. The learning and growth that takes place at Oregon State is about the process, the acquirement of knowledge and morality—not about the win at the end of the game. Therefore, the school needs to step aside its interpretation of the logo and allow students to take the leading role in deciding what the branding says about the university. By doing this, the university will support compassion because it will recognize the individual human factors that establish what Oregon State and Being Orange means. Compassion is truly what it means to Be Orange.
To Be Orange is to be compassionate. Compassion involves promoting the well-being and happiness of yourself, others, and the environment. The university has echoes of this within their mission statement, promoting the health and well being of the self and the environment, but actually becoming Orange means much more. It requires true understanding of the moral value of compassion. This means that decisions made each day bear in mind the positive or negative response that they will have on the people and the environment. The environment is included as a necessary part of our world that needs compassion for multiple reasons. First, the environment allows the continuation of life for humans, including air to breath, animals and plants to eat, and space to live. Therefore, preserving the environment means allowing life for fellow humans to continue. In addition, however, the environment requires compassion as an entity all its own for the inherent positive qualities it possesses, regardless of what it “gives” to humankind.
In this way, morality is determined by the extent to which a person is compassionate in their actions in the Orange community. Oregon State University offers its own ecosystem of diverse people, surroundings, forms of knowledge, and behaviors. Therefore, practicing and becoming proficient at skills of compassion within the community of Oregon State offers the ability to act as an “Orange” person in areas outside the university, include careers. A degree from Oregon State University shows a person has acquired skills of compassion within the setting of the school, and is therefore able to perform compassion in a variety of situations after he or she graduates or departs from the physical Oregon State community. Because Being Orange is being compassionate, students at Oregon State can transfer their skills of compassion into other environments and when surrounded with people not associated with the Orange community.
Compassion includes a wide variety of thoughts and behaviors. First, it requires knowledge a range of information and skills of what is required to be compassionate. Knowledge is a range of information and skills learned over time, both formally and informally. Learning happens through processes and outcomes, in class, in social interactions, and in other daily activities that occur on campus each day. This knowledge means understanding which actions foster positive outcomes for yourself, others, and the environment. For the self, this may mean positive self-image and self-talk. For others, this may involve moral imagination—the ability to place yourself in another’s position in order to understand a situation from their perspective. For the environment, this requires knowledge of sustainability, a main component already present in the university’s mission statement.
Because Being Orange means to be compassionate, the Orange community is defined as any members contributing or interacting with the university—making them able to learn and display compassion while at Oregon State and in the world beyond. This means that students, faculty, alumni, and other associates can, and should, Be Orange. The “Be” element of this suggests that a person simply exists, or lives, as Orange upon membership of the community. Therefore, the university, when working to the full extent of its mission to create an Orange community, will foster a responsibility for students and others to be compassionate. Responsibility is the duty a person feels to act in accordance with the moral principles of his or her community. Being Orange means existing with the responsibility of compassion. The university would benefit greatly from allowing, and encouraging, the Orange community to define what its logo stands for, and what its values represent.

Kyle Thornton

Be Responsible, Be Orange

Roughly four years ago, I decided I wanted to attend Oregon State University to pursue and undergraduate degree in health care management. Before selecting Oregon State, I looked at other universities around the state of Oregon. What OSU had to offer, couldn’t compare to other universities in the state. Oregon State is known for using the slogan “powered by orange”, but what does being orange really mean? I had never really thought about what it truly meant to be orange until we had to write this paper for Ethics 205. So what does it mean to be orange, and what will your degree represent?

I thought for many hours on what it meant to be orange. So many important values came to mind when I pondered what being orange meant. As I searched for quotes about values on the Internet, one really stuck with me. Winston Churchill once said, “The price of greatness is responsibly”.  To me, being orange means being responsible because OSU is shaping people for greatness.

I always knew what responsibility was but never really looked deeper into what it pertained to. OSU has taught me lots of responsibility throughout my four years here. First, it taught me how to be accountable for all my actions. If I didn’t study for a test or do the homework I was ultimately responsible for those actions. This eventually led to me learning how to be responsible with time management. Learning how to manage your time successful is extremely helpful in all aspects of life. Having to juggle studying, writing papers, and other homework assignments taught me how to prioritize my time in an efficient manner. This will further help me in my career. I know I will face multiple tasks throughout my day and knowing how to manage my time efficiently will help me accomplish these tasks. Another thing responsibility shows is that you take pride in yourself and what you do. OSU taught me to take pride in my schoolwork if I wanted to have a better life for myself. I was responsible for putting in the hard work to get good grades so I could graduate and find a job I want. Ultimately, being responsible is important because it challenges you to become great and shows what type of person you are.

Being responsible requires many actions but the most important action is doing the right thing. By being a student here at OSU, you are put into a small community with thousands of people. If people weren’t doing the right things, the system has a whole would fail. This is why OSU labels people as being orange, so they will think about with it means to be orange and hopefully do the right things. One thing I noticed in my four years was people are willing to help you all the time. Classmates see your struggling and can help you understand the materials. If you’ve been responsible for four years, you should be able to walk out of OSU with life skills and a degree showing you worked hard and succeeded.

When I graduate from OSU, my degree won’t be just a piece of paper. My degree will represent several values. First and foremost, it will represent hard work and dedication. My degree will show people I work hard and I finish things I set out to do. It will also show success. Not everyone goes on to pursue a higher education. So graduating in four years with a bachelor degree will show people that I am a successful person who works hard. Lastly, my degree will represent I am a responsible person. I was responsible for knowing what classes to take, what term to take them, completing homework assignments, writing papers, and doing group projects. By choosing to get my undergraduate degree from OSU I was taught to be orange, be responsible.

“Be Orange” is the concept of an always-evolving definition for what it means to have been, currently are, or will be involved at Oregon State University. What is more, an instrumental part of “Being Orange” is the emphasis placed on improving not only one’s own health and wellness, but also those in the community. “Health”, in this case, is best described as complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely just living in the absence of disease. A phenomenal aspect of this definition is that anybody is capable of being healthy. In other words, no matter what one’s current health status, we have the potential to be healthy if we are working to achieve complete physical, mental, and social well-being. What is more, being healthy is made much easier because a healthy lifestyle is fully supported at numerous levels of Oregon State University, including the University as a whole, certain colleges, and at the individual level.

Oregon State University as a whole rigorously supports health. In fact, in Oregon State’s mission it declares, “As a land grant institution committed to teaching, research, and outreach and engagement, Oregon State University promotes economic, social, cultural and environmental progress for the people of Oregon, the nation and the world. This mission is achieved by producing graduates competitive in the global economy, supporting a continuous search for new knowledge and solutions, and maintaining a rigorous focus on academic excellence, particularly in the three Signature Areas: Advancing the Science of Sustainable Earth Ecosystems; Improving Human Health and Wellness; and Promoting Economic Growth and Social Progress.”

With the goal of improving human health and wellness, Oregon State University offers specific colleges and areas of study that educate and provide the fundamental knowledge needed for future healthcare providers. The students who study healthcare at OSU are being trained to work in areas where they are capable of helping to provide methods to improve physical, social, and mental well-being. These colleges include, but are not limited to: the Dietetics graduate degree program, the college of Exercise and Sports Science, Psychology, and Public Health and Human Sciences. For example, the vision of the college of Public Health and Human Sciences is “to ensure lifelong health and well-being for every person, every family, every community.” What is more, this college is geared toward educating the “next generation of globally minded public health and human sciences professionals.” This college focuses more on the physical aspect of health and well-being and aims to “address the most challenging public health issues facing us today: chronic disease, health disparities, obesity, healthcare reform, youth development, health policy, physical activity and environmental health.”

Finally, regardless of the area of a study being perused by an individual, Oregon State University aims to help improve health and well-being on campus by targeting the individual through providing various resources. These resources include:

-Beaver stride: Program aimed to improve physical fitness, available to students, no matter what one’s current physical condition.

-Intramural athletics: Over 35 leagues and tournaments are offered during the academic year to play and compete with others on campus. Intramural Sports is a great outlet to socialize, de-stress, learn new sports and get physically fit.

-Anti-Smoking campaigns: Oregon State University’s prohibits smoking on campus.

-Required Academic Courses: HHS 231, Intro to health and wellness.

-Student Health Services: Health care facility and pharmacy available to students.

-Dixon Recreation Center: Workout facility including a weight room, an indoor track, basketball courts, racket ball courts, yoga/Pilates areas, volleyball courts, a swimming pool, and stationary exercise equipment.

-Counseling Services: provides psychological counseling, consultation, outreach and education to OSU students.

-The Mind Spa: The Mind Spa is a unique sanctuary targeted solely toward soothing one’s mind, body, and spirit.

-PAC classes: Hundreds of Physical Activity Courses designed to keep students active.

During my freshman year of college, spring of 2011, I took Biology 103. This class was an introduction to human physiology. After the very first class, I was hooked. In other words, I was completely captivated by the human body and my passion for learning how to keep the human body healthy continues to grow each day. The importance of health is by far the most irreplaceable value that I have formed while I have been a student at Oregon State. When I graduate with my Public Health and Human Sciences degree I want other employers to see my transcript and know that I come from an institution that is fundamentally based on the desire to improve “Human Health and Wellness”. With my Public Health background, I hope other institutions will know that I am wholeheartedly devoted to helping promote health, prevent disease, and prolong life.

Rather than students being expected to improve their health, Oregon State University is geared toward encouraging students to be healthy. Students are offered numerous resources to help them improve their physical, mental, and social well-being. Implementing healthy habits during one’s college years, when one is typically younger and healthier, will make these practices more routine. However, some students may not study in the health care fields or take advantage of the healthcare services offered here. These particular individuals are by no means excluded from the OSU community, but I believe that they will need to incorporate a healthier lifestyle at some point when their bodies becomes weaker, they gain unwanted weight, or if they experience various types of mental instability such as anxiety or depression.

The mission of Oregon State aims to produce graduates in order to advance the Science of Sustainable Earth Ecosystems; Improve Human Health and Wellness; and Promote Economic Growth and Social Progress. The task then, is to educate undergraduate and graduate students in the healthcare fields, who will then be able to devote their time and knowledge to improving human health and wellness. Therefore the scope of this mission is undergraduate and graduate students who are perusing a degree in healthcare or solely aiding students by providing healthcare resources.

The decision to be healthy is omnipresent. Decisions regarding what to eat, whether or not to exercise, how much sleep to get, and how to best care for oneself mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally are choices we face every day. The compilation of these choices can have an enormous effect on one’s health. It’s as if you are playing Jenga; poor choices here and there might not matter at first, but if you continue picking and choosing poor habits, one’s health will quickly come crashing down.

Occasionally there are hurdles students face that stands in the way of making choices to promote physical, mental, and social well-being. For instance, three of the main restaurants in the Memorial Union food court are Panda Express, ToGo’s, and Carl’s Jr. For the most part, these restaurants oppose the optimal diet of someone who is trying to improve their physical health. Another factor of opposition might be health care costs. Though many services are provided free to students, depending on the service desired there might be a fee. Finally, students often live such fast paced lives that all too often sleep is the first activity to go when time is short. Sleep is an enormous contributor to an individual’s mental, physical, and social well-being. In the scheme of things, these hurdles are combatable if one desires to live a healthy lifestyle. For instance, it takes the conscious effort to set aside enough time for sleep and choosing healthy eating habits.

Why does health matter? What is the significance of having complete physical, mental, and social well-being? I would argue that the state of one’s health has an enormous affect on happiness. An unhealthy body due to weakness or disease, unhealthy social interactions, and/or mental instability can tamper with the ability for someone to achieve happiness. Therefore, learning techniques of how to improve these aspects of one’s life has the ability to improve happiness. Aristotle believed that humans are always in search of “eudemonia” or “happiness and flourishing.” In fact, he believes that the Goal of Life is to find happiness. Thus, by improving human health and wellness one can potentially increase his/her happiness.

By Elisabeth Reed

Submitted by Madison Miller

Be Driven. Be Orange.

The cost of college; a topic many of us dread. Price has been the focus of education in recent years, with discussions throughout the country about some of the highest tuition prices and debt amounts in the nations history. According to the College Board, the average cost of public college for the 2012-2013 academic year was $22,261. For private colleges, the average cost was $43,289. With tuition continuing to increase, it is scary to think how much an education may cost in 20 years. The issue of college prices is not going to go away. In a society based heavily on achievement and ranking, a college education is arguably expected from our generation. To justify these accumulating tuition bills and seemingly unending debt, our education must be invaluable in comparison. Our classes need to be about more than grades, but about developing drive, the motivation to take positive action in our lives.
At Oregon State University, being orange comes with a sense of pride. We are proud to call ourselves Beavers and be affiliated with the University, but we need more than pride to represent our University. To me, “Being Orange” means to be driven. To be a community of people who are dedicated to work together for a common goal and to create leaders in the community, classroom and beyond. Leaders are people who represent the good, honest way by considering other people in their actions. Leaders act as examples, making other people want to follow in their steps. Our place of education should be dedicated to helping us grow in wisdom so we can become better leaders. Wisdom is being able to apply what one learns through experience and knowledge, and act thoughtfully, rather than impulsively. When a University is committed to helping students not only find their purpose, but also grow and become confident in their abilities to carry it out, then the cost of the education becomes worth the price. An education becomes expensive when it is focused on achieving higher grades not higher wisdom. Education should be more than a letter on a transcript and more than the price we pay. We should be finding purpose through the wisdom we are gaining.
To “be” is to embody or identify with. We embody what it means to be orange; meaning our very lives represent being driven. Being orange is something everyone who is a part of Oregon State (students, staff, faculty, community members) is a part of. We can best represent our University by being a generation who is driven. It does not matter how small or how little recognition one gets from taking action, it is that they are taking action to begin with, demonstrating their desire to be someone who is engaged in the world around them by making a conscious decision to invest their time, money and lives in something they care about. We often associate making a difference with these huge world wide recognized achievements like being a CEO, starting a nonprofit or rising to the top ranks of your occupation. Our University needs to be invested in changing this way of thinking. An emphasis should be on action, not reward. We should work for the advancement of our communities, not advancement of self. What matters is that we are engaged, that we are committed to being a part of something bigger than ourselves. We should all be determined to constantly be moving, growing and thriving in our lives, careers, and relationships. As a society, we have lost the drive to take action in order to help our communities or work places, instead our drive has transformed into the desire to make money. Money is great and we are given the material things in this world to enjoy. But when our purpose is found in money and the possessions we own, we are not living up to our full potential. Every one of us is going to die, and when that time comes, we will lose everything we own. I have a feeling that on our death beds, we won’t be thinking about the money we made or did not make, but how we spent our time, what we did to make a difference.
Our university should be committed to making sure students have goals for their lives and teaching students they are worth more than the number on their paycheck. Part of doing this is helping students figure out what they are passionate about, what drives them. Passion is something we do for joy, something that we are willing to stand behind, fight for and boast about. Helping students to develop skills and an awareness of their interests is where passion begins. If they have the passion they have the ability. Students need to understand and believe they are capable!
Being driven is essential to life beyond the University. Life is not easy and we need to be equipped with the skills to press on when life gets hard. Continuously setting goals for ones self is a huge step in the right direction. As humans we are called to action. Even at the most basic level as babies, it is programmed in us to move. It is because of this need inside of us to take action that we walk. Education is more than taking classes and getting good grades, it’s about learning to takes risks and to go out and participate in ones community. Generation after generation, technology is advancing and it sometimes seems that each generation is getting lazier. But that is not going to be us; we are not going to be by standards, we are going to make things happen!
Being driven is so important for many reasons. It tells employers we will get the job done and are committed to improving the places we work for. It demonstrates a desire in us to be better friends and employers at things like demonstrating listening skills, the ability to see beyond our own opinions and being able work with other people. Drive demonstrates we are determined to make things work and for change to happen when it is needed. Drive is what is keeping alive the desire to cure cancer. Our baccalaureate credits have become something so mundane. They are intended to help us become well rounded students, but are they really accomplishing that? I want to get something out of the time I spend in a classroom. A class doesn’t mean there always needs to be sitting. A class like ethics 205 is more of what we should be seeing in our baccalaureate requirements. Classes where we can engage in meaningful matters like what we want for our lives and the type of people we want to be known as, classes where we are exposed to things going on in the community. In ethics 205, we went outside the classroom to see things like a dance mob and a petition event. Simply leaving the classroom is an example of taking action. We went out and we saw examples of people taking action behind something they were passionate about. What would it be like to have a class where students can go out and be an active member in the community, where they could find ways to be compassionate—to do things for other people out of a genuine desire to help. I think we also need to invest our time in better advising our students early on by giving them more information on majors and what certain careers actually entail. Oregon State needs to be a University that helps mold its students into a body of people that go out in the world and take action. I think most of us want to make a difference, sometimes we just don’t know how. We don’t get told enough that we are capable, and that leaves many of us paralyzed in terms of how we spend our lives. Our University needs to stop this trend. We need to go back and re-teach students that their lives and education are about more than a good grade point average or making money. As students, we need to believe that we can make a difference; that fear of failure is not enough to hold us back from taking action. We need to develop drive. I want us to leave Oregon State with more than a desired career path, but a real desire to take action whether that is in our workplace or our extended communities. How amazing would it be for us to be spread out across the country and even the world as we embody what it means to be people who are driven, who are committed to engaging with the people around them and their communities! For other people to see in our actions what it means to “Be Orange.”

Submitted by Madison Miller

Dan Gilbert makes key points about a topic too crucial to miss: our state of being. The widely known idea of the “American Dream,” is centered on the possibility of finding happiness. Gilbert is adamant that we are missing something of great value if we think happiness is only something that can be found. Instead he proposes happiness is something that can be synthesized. So often we see happiness only when it is natural, meaning when we get what it is we want. But synthetic happiness is possible! We can make something good and have happiness; even we don’t get what we want. Gilbert provides the example of a man who spent years wrongly imprisoned in jail and yet still describes those years as “glorious!” Gilbert advocates happiness as something we can create and that is not solely based on our circumstances and experiences. Happiness is an acceptance of things we cannot change.
Happiness requires ethics. As Gilbert demonstrates in multiple studies, we often don’t know what it is that makes us happy. We think happiness is only something we can find, undermining our capacity to create it. We mistakenly accept an imposter of happiness thinking it’s the real thing. If we live by the desire to find happiness, our ethical decisions will constantly be self-centered and result in impulse decisions we think will be the most satisfying. Ultimately those decisions lead to emptiness rather than happiness and our search only continues. If we don’t consider ethics in happiness, our desire for happiness will take priority over our ethics. If happiness is our end goal, we risk loosing our compassion for others. What we think will satisfy us ends up being all that matters and in the search of purpose we lose it.
If we don’t consider ethics in happiness then our decisions become based on what we think will make us happy. For example, if an A is what someone thinks will make them happy, then they will do everything to achieve an A. If ethics aren’t a part of achieving this happiness, then cheating to get an A is a plausible idea. If ethics are a part of happiness, then the student will probably not consider cheating and instead realize they need to work hard and study in order to get an A. Gilbert’s study on Harvard students using pictures demonstrates we are often blind to what will truly make us happy. In the study, students must choose between two pictures, one to keep and one to give away. One group had the option to swap the picture for up to four days if they changed their minds. The other group could never swap their picture; their first decision was their ultimate decision. He then asked them how happy they were with their decisions, showing those who couldn’t swap their pictures thought they’d be slightly happier than those who could. Weeks later it was found that the group who could swap their pictures for up to 4 days, did not like their picture at all and those who could never swap their pictures liked the ones they chosen a lot. They then chose another group of students, this time giving them the option to be in the reversible (could swap) group or the irreversible (couldn’t swap) group. 66% wanted to be in the reversible group, a choice that as proven earlier will ultimately lead them to be dissatisfied. This is a perfect example. We do not know what makes us happy! Gilbert makes a great point that when our ambition for happiness is not bound by ethics, we end up lying, stealing, cheating, being reckless; etc. at the hopes of finding our happiness. Happiness and ethics are intertwined. If we do not have an understanding of happiness and what it truly means to be happy, our search for happiness will be at the cost of our ethical decisions. The lyrics in Beautiful Eulogy’s song “Take It Easy” put things into perspective: “maybe you’re not finding it cause you’re not defining it right.” Too many of us search for happiness our entire lives, when it is right in front of us. I don’t want to look back and realize I spent my life on an endless search for the idea of happiness. When we put thought and other people into our ethical decisions; we will find more satisfaction and happiness in our lives than we will in a self-centered life spent searching for happiness in experiences. After all in Gilbert’s words, “we have within us the capacity to manufacture the very commodity we are chasing after!”