Cliques define a person's social status, whether it be in high school or college.
While looking around the Atrium, one of the largest dining facilities on campus, you could see it's also the most divided.
If you've seen the movie "Mean Girls," the following image is easy to imagine: a scene where a character draws a map of where cliques sit in the cafeteria. This scenario is somewhat similar. Everywhere you look, the areas in the Atrium are broken off into separate sections. Be it the athletes, greeks, popular people or unique outsiders, it's fairly easy to spot the groups.
On Nov. 3, I attended an event hosted by Zeta Phi Beta sorority and C.H.A.O.S. Crew Productions. During the event, we watched a documentary called "Fire Burning, Higher Learning: The Unexamined Story of the Black Student at Ball State University."
After the film ended, we discussed the differences of being an athlete, a member of the greek community and a regular student. We also discussed how to promote the Multicultural Center better and how unity among black students is sorely lacking.
It was through this discussion period I began to wonder where the unity among all students on Ball State's campus had disappeared.
Every year during the Spring Semester, Unity Week is hosted in an effort to show cultural unity on campus.
During this week, the Unity Pageant takes place to recognize young multicultural leaders on campus. Last year's theme was "Wish Upon a Star," and it emphasized bringing upcoming stars on campus into the light. The pageant allows men and women to showcase their talents and leadership while getting the chance to win a scholarship and earn the title of Mr. and Ms. Unity.
I've come to notice in my four years on campus that Unity Week continues to lack support from students. The main event seems to be the Unity Pageant. I'm not knocking the pageant, but the entire week of events deserves stronger support and attention by students on campus.
When it comes to unity and cliques on campus, I think we have split ourselves into the all-too-familiar cliques, perhaps unintentionally. Everyone doesn't belong to the same organization and might tend to group together with those who are most familiar and do the same things they do. The subject may make some people feel uncomfortable, but it should make others speak up about making a change.
It can get old talking about how unity is important, but until we can come to a solution, we must keep talking about why not working together is so harmful to our society.
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