The Emory Wheel

difficult to dissect the question of why Oxford students struggle with mental health, it is much easier to spot the improvements that can be made to help students have easier access to mental health counseling services. This concern is not new, but I still implore the Oxford administration to take actionable steps to foster easier access to in-person counseling services and to consider the mental health crisis at Oxford as their problem — because it is.

Along with mental health, there is also a semi-toxic club culture on our campus. The double-edged sword that accompanies early leadership opportunities: if you aren’t in a traditional leadership position, you then feel as if you are lacking in some way. The College boasts that 65% of its student body holds a leadership position. Because Oxford clubs are all run by executive boards, there is a popular feeling — acknowledged by the involvement of the Oxford Student Government Association (Oxford SGA) and other student voices — that you are not truly involved in a club’s community if you are not on its executive board. Clubs focus more on planning show-stopping campus-wide events than on creating a community among its members.

As a member of Oxford SGA, I have witnessed the work that Oxford SGA is doing to improve this culture, however, I also believe that this change necessitates action and a perspective shift from the student body as well. To that 65% on an executive board: make your goal curating a community for interested students, not event planning. Only people can change a mindset, and this community norm is making Oxford an overall worse experience. While there are many other details to pick on and criticize in that original editorial, I think the more important point is that the needed improvement at Oxford is not rooted in its differences from the Atlanta cam- pus but in its own structural issues. The entirety of Emory needs to learn more about Oxford, its history and its own unique culture and community. It may seem inconsequential to students attending the Atlanta campus; however, Oxford is very much a part of Emory University and deserves to be treated as such. Not as a worse experience than Atlanta, but as a different one. One Emory, right?

Emory College, Goizueta and Nursing students, do your best not to be ignorant about Oxford — you’re only perpetuating assumptions about Oxford’s resources, community and rigor. Maybe Google it, read about its history and look at a few pictures. Or, god forbid, make a trip to Oxford and experience it firsthand.

Oxford students, don’t treat Oxford as a backdoor to Emory. I understand the impulse to hold Oxford side-byside with Emory, however, they are not the same and are not meant to be similar. Appreciate the good aspects and advocate against the bad, such as men- tal health, club culture or any other problems. If you hate the “E” credit, then hate it — and speak out about it — but do not justify your disdain with a comparison to Emory College, Goizeuta or the Nursing School. My two semesters at Oxford have not been all sunshine and daisies. However, I am relentlessly reminded by my fantastic professors, ample leadership and research opportunities and the beautiful quad why I chose this experience over the Emory College one. You don’t have to love Oxford, but use your voices to call for feasible and proactive change. “Oxfordism” was not well-captured by the former Board’s editorial. Their criticisms only drown out other more legitimate reasons to protest change at Oxford. Instead, they would have served both Oxford and the greater Emory community better if they had pinpointed actual problems and solutions — not just differences.

Ellie Fivas (24Ox) is from Cleveland, Tennessee. Volume

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The Emory Wheel welcomes letters and op-ed submissions from the Emory community. Letters should be limited to 300 words and op-eds should be at least 500. Those selected may be shortened to fit allotted space or edited for grammar, punctuation and libelous content. Submissions reflect the opinions of individual writers and not of the Wheel’s Editorial Board or Emory University. Send emails to matthew.chupack@emory.edu or postal mail to The Emory Wheel, Drawer W, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322.