I believe that NMBU students should speak their minds more
I believe that NMBU students should speak their minds more
Submited by Jens Bartnes
NMBU has a bustling student life, and is full of committed students. I am convinced that you all have opinions about what is going on around you. Some care about how NMBU is working to become more sustainable, or how long the canteens on campus are open. Others worry that association life is perceived as exclusionary, or that there are too few female artists during UKA. NMBU is known for having an active student community, and I constantly talk to students with strong opinions about various things. So why is there so little public debate in the student community?
As the student newspaper on perhaps Norway's most active campus, Tuntreet should have been an obvious arena for exchanging opinions between students. Nevertheless, the letters to the editor here are few and far between. On the website, there is only one post under "opinions" from last semester. This is not meant as a criticism of Tuntreet, but rather an invitation to you as a student: submit a letter to the editor! Create debate! Share your opinion, or reply to someone else's letter! It's not dangerous to speak your mind publicly, and we want to hear your voice.
We all have opinions about what is happening around us. Nevertheless, it can seem scary to have to share them with the entire student community. Sometimes it can be difficult to formulate yourself well, or think that you don't know enough about a subject to express yourself about it. But you really don't need a master's degree to have opinions about what's happening around you. And the Ås bubble is also full of issues that occupy us students, but that few others care about. Who else will have the debate on housing development in Vollskogen, how we can improve the social events offered at Samfunnet, or where we will build new student housing?
Public exchange of opinions is an important part of the democracy. At the same time, we keep hearing that it is becoming more difficult to participate in the public debate. Comment sections and social media have made it easy to provide feedback when someone has done something good, but it is often the "trolls" who are best at making use of that opportunity.
A good debate culture with a lot of room for disagreement is also an important part of academia. As students at a university, this should be part of our education, to a greater extent than it is today. But we also have a responsibility to create this debate culture at our own institution, and in our own student environment.
We have a flood of passionate students, and we have the platform to hold the debate. Now all that remains is for you to pick up the pen or the keyboard and start writing.
