The following piece, written by the opinion editors, reflects the majority opinion of the editorial board.
On a campus that clings to its bubble-like armor and the simplicity of our own routines, it's not everyday that something breaks the normalcy. It's not everyday that students step out of daily to-do lists, their own lives and look around to point out something that isn't right.
But this week, when columnist George Will came to Miami, bringing the controversy of his views on sexual assault with him, our campus woke up. Our campus knew something was wrong and, at least a portion of us, pointed it out.
Emails were sent asking for the community to stand together, Facebook posts called students to action and casual conversations between peers went beyond the surface of "are you going out tonight?"
For one moment in time, our student body didn't sit idly by when something challenging came knocking. We stepped up and we reacted, which was honeslty a nice surprise compared to our usual approach: doing nothing at all.
So, as we reflect on this atypical week, The Editorial Board sees both good and bad points to take away from how the Miami community reacted.
The good: It's comforting to know that we, as a student body, can tear ourselves away from our typically shallow pursuits, band together and support something. Seeing the community come out to stand up for what they believe in was a sign of engagement in democracy. Passing by the crowd of people in front of Farmer and scrolling through hundreds of names on the petition was inspiring. It was something we rarely see happen here.
Even if it was a small percentage, our campus came together and voiced their opinion on an issue that plagues our us, sexual assault. So that is the upside, the part we can pat ourselves on the back for and proudly call mom and dad about.
But this week also begs a few questions: why doesn't this happen more? And why wasn't a bigger majority of our community involved? Will's lecture created such a bold response on our campus, and yet we continue to let the actual issue of sexual assault go on without nearly as much reaction.
It was clear that many of our students are still too immature to recognize what those protests were about, and why they were important. For each student who signed that petition, there were way more students who laughed it off.
It's one thing for students to not be involved and to not engage in intelligent dialogue when it's right in their backyard, but it's another thing entirely to openly make fun of the protest - and we noticed plenty of jokes being thrown around this week. It comes back to the fact that Miami students are perpetually stuck in a bubble and don't really care, much less know, about what is going on outside of their own social sphere. So, just in case you couldn't see it coming, this is the bad side: our apathetic attitude.
We say we're concerned about hookup culture and sexual assault at Miami, but we just continue to let it happen. Young women continue to be taken advantage of every weekend.
There are more people having sex within this one-mile square than any surrounding area we can think of - and people don't really think anything of it. The same can be said for the drinking culture. Going out to the bars, getting hammered and bringing back a stranger is just one of the social norms. And until things like that change, sexual assault is still going to be hugely prevalent.
What will it take to actually confront the most prominent challenges we face on our campus? What will it take to drastically change rape culture and our lack of motivation to stop sexual assaults?
It will take a collective attitude that is the opposite of apathy; an attitude we got a small slice of on this campus this week. Our hope is that these events might create momentum and spur actual discourse about sexual assault on campus - because that is what sits at the root of this whole controversy. We can't let this week go by and forget what it was all about. We need to remember that we're all in this together as one student body - yes, High School Musical style - and we need to realize what we're capable of.
We need more weeks like this past one, more moments where students speak out and others get behind them. We need more signs that our campus can wake up, be unified and make change happen.