Editorial: SGA tries to pin down Rider’s lack of pride

Often when we think of school spirit, we picture bleachers filled with obnoxious sports-loving students chanting and, of course, the few with their school’s name painted on their chests and faces. While school comradery is certainly beaming through those individuals, it isn’t the only way to portray pride for your school.
At Rider, as opposed to some other universities, there is a general shortage of school spirit among students and this year, the Student Government Association (SGA) stepped up to fix that through its creation of a new school spirit campaign called “R House.”
The slogan comes from the chant, “Our House,” that is often heard at basketball games, and was used on the first of four pins in the spirit button series — the epicenter of SGA’s campaign.
The purpose of making the pins was to raise awareness about the giant elephant in the room — the huge lack of Rider pride. By having these buttons, students can feel pride in what they do and what they are involved in around campus. Though only small tokens of representation, they are a simple way to conjure up admiration for Rider and something that students quickly became interested in collecting. Just like that, school spirit has already begun to grow and spread around campus.
It was quite an innovative initiative on SGA’s part and it’s an easy way for students to feel more like a part of Rider. After all, there have to be some good reasons for students to show excitement about the school they each chose to attend; we just needed a reminder of them.
The first set of buttons was handed out to students on Nov. 7 in Daly’s during lunchtime and the second set, which displayed what college you are a part of, was given out on Monday. The next pin in the series will contain numbers, which will be given out according to what kind of student you are. For example, if you are an athlete, you will receive one with the number 20 on it, representing the 20 division one sports on campus. The final pin will be given out on Nov. 26 after Thanksgiving break and will read “Welcome back to Our House.”
For the first time in a while, Rider is seeing its school government take charge and actually make an effort in changing students’ attitudes and building up their enthusiasm.
For further school spirit encouragement, if you collect all four buttons and attend the Holiday Lighting Celebration on Nov. 30, you will be eligible to win an iPad from SGA.
Hopefully SGA will continue to crank out new ideas to keep the student body’s pride for Rider fresh through its “R House” campaign. For many of us, graduation day will arrive before we know it and as students, we should learn to appreciate our school before we leave it.

The weekly editorial expresses the
majority opinion of The Rider News.
This week’s editorial was written
by Opinion Editor Kristy Grinere.