T.E.A.M.

Together Everyone Achieves More.

It’s been a mantra of the CMU men’s basketball team, and it’s never been more apparent than last weekend, when they knocked off Metro State and Fort Lewis in the RMAC Shootout before falling to Colorado Mines.

Hats off to them. It’s a testament to coach Jim Heaps, the program, the players and all that they accomplished this year. It might not be exactly where they wanted to finish, but it’s something that each individual, team, or club on campus can directly learn from and try to emulate.

We live in an era that emphasizes the individual. Star players, celebrities, reality stars and loud-mouthed politicians make headlines every day. The team play, knowing your role and executing that role is lost on a society set on hero worship.

Important things, like violence forums, will likely be passed over because people “don’t have time” or “don’t see the need.”

Opportunities to unite the campus behind something uniquely good are few and far between. Students need to know their role and know what this editorial board, and countless other organization leaders across campus are trying to do.

We’re trying to build something better. A campus where students, faculty, and community create something good, fostering an environment when students interact almost constantly, and were students care about their voice being heard.

This violence forum (Wednesday at 6 p.m in the West Ballroom) is a perfect opportunity to accomplish something great as a campus. Much like the men’s basketball team, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The sky is the limit when it comes to what we can accomplish, and it’s time to wake up and realize it.

Don’t brush off forums like this one. Make time. Be the student that wanders out of the  comfy dorm (or apartment) to see what’s going on.

Quit being indifferent when our entire campus atmosphere is on the line. Say that campus violence is not okay. Because together everyone achieves more, and the whole of this campus is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.