The first 2017 fall issue of The Criterion contained the editorial entitled “CMU is boring” that lit a long overdue fire in Colorado Mesa University students, faculty and alumni. Many took the article as an attack against their beloved university and lashed out. The Criterion’s Facebook page and website were besieged with angry comments that claimed The Criterion staff was entitled, pretentious and cowardly.
Hopefully, the initial knee-jerk reaction has calmed down and all those who went red in the face have had the opportunity to take a collective breath. After all, civil discourse can only take place amongst the reasonable.
Perhaps the biggest misconception about the editorial is that all of us mean-spirited editors had nothing better to do than hide behind our computers and trash-talk CMU. That is not the case, and people who interpreted the article thusly managed to miss the point entirely. Just as they seemed to miss the fact that The Criterion also criticized itself.
Those who think the editors don’t like CMU are partly right. We don’t like CMU; we love it. We love it so much that we want it to be what it can be, rather than be satisfied with what it currently is.
The editorial, therefore, was written entirely because of how much The Criterion cares about CMU and all the students enrolled here. If we didn’t care, we would have done something similar to the University of Colorado’s Independent, who published an editorial about gluten-free diets.
Editorials should address bigger issues, and at CMU, there is no bigger issue than the university itself.
This was not a “CMU sucks” article, as one angry reader suggested. This was merely an article pointing to a problem. Despite the claims that no fact-checking was done, it was fact-checking that led to the numbers mentioned in the article.
It was only after the numbers came in that the editorial staff decided something needed to be said. A fire needed to be lit under everyone that shares our love for CMU.
Attendance at CMU sporting events really is low, and this is unfortunate. This university has great teams that accomplished a lot last year and look to improve this year. Aside from families and friends, though, where were all the Mavericks?
The theatre puts on entertaining plays and musical performances with very talented artists. Many of us have attended every one of them since our arrival at CMU. Yet, student attendance really is low, and little seems to be done about it. Where were all the Mavericks?
The list goes on. Musical performances, events and the like. Where were all the Mavericks?
Those that found themselves so angry and insulted by “CMU is boring” that they lashed out at The Criterion would be well served to prove us wrong. We would actually love that. If the question, “Where were all the Mavericks?” can no longer be asked, there will no longer be articles that say “CMU is boring.”
The best way to silence critics is to prove them wrong, rather than shout them down. Sitting behind computers and writing angry messages about editors sitting behind computers is counterintuitive and only sends the message that speech and opinions should only be free if they are all the same.
Let go of the anger, step away from the computer and go support CMU. Attend a CMU concert, support your CMU teams, check out a CMU performance. You will be guaranteed to see The Criterion staff there.
Or, you can sit around being angry without trying to fix the problem. It’s up to you.
We encourage CMU students to have their voice heard. If you would like to respond to the editorial, a letter to the editor is always welcome. Please send the letter to Criterion@coloradomesa.edu.
