By Jim Mahar, Professor Columnist
St. Bonaventure is a very small school. We have fewer than 2,000 students. We are a rural school. Almost everyone knows everyone else. People are involved in classes, clubs, sports and more. You can’t help but know others. At how many other schools does the professor give you their cell phone number on the first day of class?
When I teach an introductory class, I always start out by asking where is Bona’s. I wait, usually not very long, for someone to say “in the middle of nowhere” before I rip the answer apart, kindly, of course.
The St. Bonaventure University community is everywhere.
Through the internet, our students are now digitally everywhere, too. Online students are often forgotten, but they make up an important and growing segment of our community. I am reminded of this past fall when, in the same semester, I had a student whose family home was threatened by fire in Southern California and another student whose home was being hit by a hurricane in Florida.
From trips around the country to around the world, Enactus, BonaResponds and many other groups have made maintained contact with people from every walk of life in every corner of the world. Don’t believe me? I will make a bet that there has not been a single day in years that I have not heard from my friends in Haiti, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Texas, The Bahamas, Liberia, Alabama and so many other places. It is this power of togetherness that allows students on campus to make loans in Haiti, help fund garden and school programs in several nations in Africa and so much more.
And it’s more than just current students. It does not end after graduation. As Mark Schmidt said a few years ago, walk in an airport with a Bonaventure shirt on and you will be hugged and talked to.
This alumni cohesiveness played out recently in Texas on BonaResponds’ spring break trip, where we had almost as many alumni from the class of 1950 to 2017 as we did current students.
These alumni are also known for doing great things as teachers, expert doctors, stellar journalists, CEOs of major airlines, large money center banks and the family business down the block. There are so many great successes.
Alumni regularly call campus home. Once back on campus, they feel like they are back where they belong. It is a special place, but it is not the location that makes it special; it is the people and the feeling of belonging.
The thing I am most proud of at SBU is the idea that all people matter, that all people are worthy of love and respect and that we can all work together to overcome great adversity.
Maybe it comes from being small. Maybe it comes from being a perennial underdog. It might even be the only way we can survive or is rooted in the Franciscan heritage.
It doesn’t matter one’s age, gender, major, color or religion. You are loved. It is a founding principle of BonaResponds and really seems interwoven in almost all aspects of the campus. I see it every day: students helping other students, faculty and staff going the extra mile, alumni willing to help in any way.
That said, the NCAA victory over UCLA Tuesday night is taking it to a whole new level.
Scrolling through my social media feeds this past week, I saw people from around the country and the world talking about the game, all trying to get to Dallas to see the next game, seeking places to stay, coordinating airport pickups and planning meet-ups with old friends.
I am using it as a reminder of how we should all behave. Lend a helping hand, care for others and remember we are all one family.
Sometimes sports can lead to division. Sometimes we can overemphasize sports to the detriment of ourselves, the athletes and even society itself. We can “overinvest” in sports stadiums. We can use sports as a distraction from the hard work we must do to improve the lives of billions around the world and next door. But there are times when sports can remind us all of what can be.
I have no idea if SBU can win another game or not, but I will never forget this feeling of togetherness. This feeling of belonging. This feeling of being part of something big. It almost feels like a BonaResponds trip.
This is the seventh in a series of articles from BonaResponds Leader Jim Mahar, Ph.D.
