Matthew Jenkins

TWUSA Student Council has struggled this year to fill all of their positions. Four out of the five executive offices had only one candidate running, and the deadline for class reps had to be extended for days in order to fill the four positions.

The small number of candidates, coupled with the very low voter turnout (24%), has left me kind of confused. With all the changes that TWU is currently undergoing, why don’t more students want to be involved in shaping the future of their school?

There seems to be a general belief on this campus that students shouldn’t/don’t care about governance, nor do they have the capacity to do so. Students who wish to be more involved are often told that they don’t have the perspective to do so. “Students are like fireflies,” they are told. “Fireflies buzz around, very bright for a short time and then disappear.”

This is a troubling idea, not the least because it is partially true. Students today weren’t around when Trinity Junior College was just a chapel on a dairy farm. And almost no current students will be here when we celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2012.

The student perspective has a freshness to it that cannot be matched by any other group in this university. However, leadership requires good hindsight as much as foresight, and a few history lessons every now and then could do us some good.

To this end, next year’s President Norman Van Eeden Petersman is ahead of the game for next year. Last week he took the incoming executive on a field trip across the border, where we had the amazing opportunity to see living history: Calvin B. Hanson, the founding leader of Trinity, in the flesh.

As we sat over coffee with Dr. Hanson and his wife Muriel, we heard many positive things about the university. They praised the work of the faculty in maintaining an intimate campus atmosphere, and Dr. Hanson told us stories in his booming voice about the seemingly insurmountable obstacles of the first few years. He also exhorted students to be passionate about the school they are attending and get involved in whatever ways they can.

The drive back from the meeting was surreal. We were carrying forty-four years of history back across the border but we had no idea what to do with it.

I think that this sense of awkward anticipation is a big reason for the small turn out this year. Many students have been uneasy in the past few months, sensing that amidst their studies and day-to-day concerns there is something big going on. History is in the making, but we don’t know how to take part.

The school is certainly changing, but as students grow increasingly bewildered about where to turn for help, we can look to the godly men and women who founded this university. People like Calvin Hanson and the students that were affected by his leadership. These students from the beginning days of TJC have formed a new alumni association, and it is their hope that the association represents the interests of all alumni, both old and new.

Perhaps students are like fireflies, but even in a short time this year, we have been seen and heard. The faculty has gained the courage to speak in part because they have seen what the student voice can do. The Board met for the first time with students to ask their opinions about how to run the university.

Perhaps we are fireflies, but together our collective light is bright enough to illuminate the next step.