Recently, our school has suffered conflict like a bad teen movie. Whether the conflicts arise from debates over T-shirts for the Monon Bell Classic, brothers hazing brothers, students yelling hateful words at each other – DePauw's students, faculty and even alumni have been hurt.
It's not a video we would like to replay.
We should treat others the way we want to be treated. Our world has become a meaner place, but DePauw has generally maintained a certain level of "nice." Most of us are from America's heartland, and we have grown up a little bit nicer than some people in the rest of the world (to claim a certain stereotype).
I have been fortunate enough to study in two cities because of DePauw. From fall in New York City (arguably the toughest and meanest city in America) to spring in Madrid (where the people can be very tough and mean because they lived under a cruel dictator for many years), I have seen people of all types not always acting nicely.
While abroad, I almost understood the meanness and accepted it.
Families who have lived under dictatorship are likely not going to raise their children to be kind to others. (Most Madrileños do not smile that much, outside of laughing with friends.)
And New Yorkers are seemingly tough by nature.
DePauw has been a place where at least the "mean people" are less mean than others. Sure, we may have impenetrable cliques, divisions in the greek system (I would not call rush DePauw's "nicest" time) and people who are generally mean, but we also have nice people.
There are people who hold doors for you, and people who say ‘Hi' to you and smile even though you do not know them — the common bond of being a DePauw Tiger is enough to elicit a ‘Hello.' Somehow, though, students on this campus have found ways to be especially mean to each other.
It's yelling foul words to someone at a frat party, but it's also the words you have said behind a friend's back, not inviting someone to a party because they aren't "cool enough," etc.
Why do we act like this? Is it because we are so insecure with who we are that we need to make others feel poor about themselves? Since when have kind Midwesterners become the people that are mean? And to make it worse, it is to people who all call DePauw home.
We are not perfect people, but I believe there is a good heart in everyone. If we try harder to be a little kinder, to say ‘Hello' to our classmates, to smile at them rather than raise our noses if someone does not act or look cool enough, to really make that effort, our campus can and will improve.
We have to believe in the good in people, because being kind can move DePauw and the world in a positive way.
Old video stores used to tell us, "be kind, rewind" when you rented a VHS. While we can't rewind our actions or the tape that played out, we can be kind and move forward.
—Napier is a senior majoring in economics from Lake Forest, Ill.
opinion@thedepauw.com