OBU Blog-About: Student Life

In the continuing celebration of 125 years of Ouachita Baptist University, we've got a month-long batch of blog posts going up here, there, and everywhere. It's part of the OBU Blogabout, and you can find all the links at this link.

This week's task: write about memories of involvement with Student Life or Campus Organizations. OBU really has some good campus groups: there's ministry groups, social clubs (fraternities and sororities), and specialty folks (like business majors or music majors). I hope you'll check out the link above to the links out there, because there's bound to be some great memories.

I, however, did not really belong to any campus life groups. Didn't pledge a social club (fraternity), wasn't heavily involved in campus BSU/BCM activities, and I really didn't get into much else. That was a choice that was more blundered into than willfully selected, but it was what it was.

So, what am I going to do to fill a blog post?

Tell you about the 2 minutes of playing time I got in intramural basketball for The Flaming Tongues? Not a chance. I'm more fit now than I was then….and that's not good. Tell you about all the reason why I was too awesome for any one social club (fraternity)? Nah---you either already know that or wouldn't believe it.

Actually, as I type this, I can think of one small organization I did belong to. Well, for a time, at least, I belonged. It was a group that existed to discuss, endorse, and recruit people to a specific theological viewpoint. Rather than dig up that whole point and turn this from a good memory to a battle over diphthongs, burnt heretics, and historical theology, I'll try to word this without isolating the issue or group.

We were, really, a small group. Mostly religion majors, though guys like me who kept floating into and out of the religion department (now the Pruet School of Christian Studies, and if had had a cool name then, I would have gone to class more often!) were involved as well. The first time we met as a group, Dr. Buckelew let us use his office for a short meeting.

Then we moved elsewhere, so that he could work and we could have space. Being religion guys, we gathered in the religion department some of the time, and I don't really remember where else we met.

My involvement didn't really last long, maybe a little over a semester. We were really little more than college students who thought they knew everything and that we needed to meet, solidify our arguments, and go show the world why they were wrong. Our points would be irresistible if people had the sense to listen. Really, we were arrogant windbags.

The pivotal moment with this group was when it dawned on me that the professors that allowed us to use their rooms for meetings disagreed with us. They were gracious and calm while we were agitated and angry.

At this point, I don't know if there's a vestige of the group left on campus. For the purposes intended by the students who had started it, I hope there's not. But for the maturity that came from learning better how to handle disagreement that I caught from wiser heads, I hope there's still a few folks around to learn and listen.

After all, that's what college student life is about: an accelerated course in how to handle real life. It's a good thing, and it's a good thing at OBU.