One Mizzou. What a great slogan.
That’s basically all One Mizzou is: a slogan, a sweet-sounding hashtag for Twitter, a short convenient catchphrase for banners. Two words, but relatively no meaning.
We’re not talking bout the athletics department’s logo, but if you’re a freshman you probably didn’t know that, and it’s not your fault. It’s One Mizzou’s.
One Mizzou is — or, more accurately, is supposed to be — a diversity initiative formed last year to counter two despicable racial incidents that occurred within two years, both in the month of February, Black History Month. Chancellor Brady Deaton called the formation of the organization his “greatest moment as chancellor.” Truly, it was a great moment, and it was very much needed given the heinous marks the hate crimes made within the campus climate at that time. The organization held much potential back then, and today has all but completely wasted it.
The month of February passed, and instead of working hard to help organize diversity-educational programming, promote the many Black History Month-related events on campus, spread a message about how vital inclusivity is for a diverse university or meet to discuss important diversity issues in the community, One Mizzou did damn near nothing. Okay, they put banners up in the student center, which probably served as a nice reminder to students about how active the athletics department is in using the slogan, because the athletics department is actually active, when One Mizzou is not.
That’s right, One Mizzou has not met once this entire semester. The last time the organization met was in November. They discussed plans for a website, which is now live, but how many of you have actually heard about or been to said website anyway?
It’s funny, considering how prominent One Mizzou was on Missouri Students Association President Xavier Billingsley and Vice President Helena Kooi’s platform during MSA presidential elections, yet the MSA-sponsored org has basically been shoved off to the side. Granted, it might not be the executives’ most important job, but it’s a fact that because One Mizzou has not met all semester, BIllingsley has not attended any meeting as MSA president.
Perhaps One Mizzou feels it doesn’t need to put much effort in, after a Columbia Tribune article gave credit to One Mizzou for an “incident free” February [according to a quote in the article](http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/mar/01/one-mizzou-credited-after-incident-free-february/), the fliers that went up in Hatch Hall were in “poor taste” and weren’t racial. The same article describes Billingsley as saying much of the year has been spent figuring out what One Mizzou can do. When is it ever understandable that any organization, especially one receiving funding from student fees, needs an entire year to only establish what it can do? If that’s the case, One Mizzou has literally been nothing but all talk.
Black History Month was a great opportunity for One Mizzou to get its name and goal out to students and establish itself as an active, important part of the campus community. Instead, One Mizzou stood idly by. Why didn’t One Mizzou host some sort of response to the flier incident or boost promotion for Black History events like the Larry Wilmore speech? Listing them on a calendar on a website nobody knows about doesn’t count.
If One Mizzou hasn’t met since November, perhaps it is considering disbanding. Given present circumstances, that might not be a bad idea.
That is, unless One Mizzou decides to step up its game and actually put efforts toward some tangible event or action instead of touting a brand name that has no quantifiable effects.
Time is ticking. The semester is halfway over, and if One Mizzou is going to do anything before it’s potential “One Mizzou Week” next year, now is the time. And we’re not expecting much from “One Mizzou Week,” considering the organization’s complete lack of meetings or activity this semester. One Mizzou was once a rallying cry with the potential to unite the campus in a way unparalleled in past years, but now it’s become an overly sensationalized, overly branded and pointless catchphrase which serves as a convenient placebo for real action on the diversity front.
Students new to this university have no clue what the student-led One Mizzou is about, and the ignorance is spreading. With the present rate of One Mizzou activity, zero, the entire student body will soon forget.
If One Mizzou won’t do anything substantial, it needs to stop using student fees and disband, and let the many social justice organizations on campus continue to do the real work.
If those groups were to unite their efforts, they could cover the entire campus. One Mizzou was supposed to be the vehicle for that unification. It still could be. Could.
