Sloane Thompson
Serving Clemson can look like getting involved in various organizations across campus or helping out your community.
People can be quick to criticize Clemson.
In particular, The Tiger’s mission is to hold Clemson accountable and “produce authentic, relevant and impartial content” about as many happenings in the city and on campus as possible — both negative and positive.
However, all this accountability can undermine what Clemson is at its core. Sometimes it feels like all we seem to hear and talk about are topics like how much our football team is struggling, the lack of parking on campus, constant construction and the difficult — even controversial — decisions that University administration and city council have to make.
I am a firm believer in using these criticisms to determine how we can best serve Clemson in our own individual ways, both big and small. This University and wonderful town have truly given us, and continue to give us, so much.
Service can have a lot of different meanings to different people. For some, serving Clemson might mean showcasing Clemson to prospective students as a CUGA tour guide, or joining CUSG to make recommendations to the University administration or upholding Clemson’s military heritage as a member of ROTC.
For others, service might be exhibiting “Clemson GRIT” as an athlete, volunteering at Clemson Community Care or participating in Greek Life.
Serving this town and University can also look like taking a half hour out of your week to pick up trash on Bowman, collecting debris after a football game at Memorial Stadium, writing motivational messages on the whiteboards in Cooper Library or even just holding the door open for the person behind you.
Remember that Clemson is your home, and the title of a Clemson student holds you to the responsibility of treating it as such. If you think Clemson can do better, stop complaining and take action through service. Even if you may not agree with everything the University does, and our football team is 3-4 for the first time in 17 years, you have a duty to leave Clemson better than you found it.
Kat Pugh is a junior English major from Clayton, California. Kat can be reached at [email protected].