Letter to the editor: Students who don't appreciate hard work to make Morris college great need to go

I am responding to nauseating noise about Morris College facilities and issues on the campus. I am a former student of Morris College. Morris College is a very fine and excellent institution with marvelous and superb facilities. The late Dr. Luns C. Richardson worked very hard and diligently to make sure that the facilities were more than adequate and excellent conditions. I entered Morris College in the fall of August 1994 and graduated in May 1999. The students were complaining then and now about dormitory and facilities, but the students who are complaining are usually the ones who are causing the damage and destruction of facilities.

My freshman year of Morris College, I was vice president of the senate in the dormitory. We had some students who came into Morris College with the intention of being destructive, damaging and spreading unnecessary rumors about the condition of the college. The only thing the students really complain about is the breakfast, lunch and dinner meals. The meals were not totally bad all the time, but it was not a vast selection to be considered. Within time, Dr. Richardson fixed that problem with better meal selection and a new student center where meals can be purchased there. The students' center was in the preliminary plans to be built after I graduated. Not to mention the new student center, the steel gates had to be placed in the new student center to keep some of the bad actors who were supposed to attend college to get an education had caused property damage and stealing items out of the new student center. The student center I had when I was at Morris College is miles away from the new student center students now at Morris College. To see how the students (some of the bad actors) are treating the Morris College facility and not appreciating the blood, sweat and tears of those who worked hard to make Morris College a great campus to attend school, those students need to go.

Morris College has its share of problems because no college or university does not escape problematic issues or concerns.

These issues and concerns need to be addressed through the Student Body Association on the campus. This is why students at any college or university elects a student body association with a President, Vice President, Secretary, Business Manager, Sgt. Arms, etc.…to represent the concerns and issues of students. These issues and concerns should be addressed and presented through the proper channels where things can get done. These issues and concerns can't get fixed or worked out when you are not willing to go through the proper channels. I am not indicating going to the news outlets to solve issues is an unreasonable decision, but you should at least bring the issues to Morris College President, faculty, staff, and student body to give them an opportunity to solve issues (that is called going through the proper channels). Airing out your dirty laundry in public to be a spectacle to Sumter, South Carolina, and the world to take notice, it is an applauding interesting character flaw within those students who do not recognize and understand how to utilize the democratic process. Morris College is a private college that gives students the opportunity to pursue a quality education. There are students who come to college with no home training at all. I know from experience living on the campus some students litter, bust windows, damage doors, set off the fire alarms, use unthinkable languages, and come into the dormitories late at night drunk and very combative. Who has encouraged the student to divulge these issues and concerns? Why not address the issues of the importance of being a good student? Why can't you use the energy to change behaviors and minds to make the college experience a delight for everyone? When will the student body stand up to the bad actors who are making the good students' educational experience difficult? How are you going to make college life better and not a problematic issue for future students? Dr. Martin Luther King stated, "It is not bad people who are in office, it is good people who do not vote who allow bad people to get into office." He added, "The applauding silence of the good people."

In conclusion, I will end with a story about me. I'm not tooting my horn, but in this debacle written in the paper I believe that the trumpet needs to be heard. My freshman year, I was concerned about issues. The parking lot in front of New Male Residents at that time was filled with trash and alcohol bottles. Me and my roommate Reverend Dr. Jamey Graham had gone out one night and picked up the trash and litter and discarded it in the waste disposal. If these students really want to be part of the solution, learn to do like Dr. Graham and I did. Pick up the necessary trash, garbage, litter, or impress upon your fellow-students to keep the college clean and decent. There are many ways to address problems, issues, and concerns, but making noise to make noise without being effective is a bunch of nauseating useless rhetoric.

TRAVIS S. HOLMES

All Perspective Inspirations LLC

Sumter