When I was a first year, Honors Day was an event for the campus. Everyone had the day off to join in Honors Day events. You could go to the award ceremony and see who won or, later in the day, go to the scholarship fair. The scholarship fair was comprised of fellow undergraduate students who presented their academic projects on panels to their families, Hamline students and anyone else intrigued to bask in the sharing of knowledge.

This has all changed. Now, Honors Day isn’t even a day off. The scholarship fair is gone and the award ceremony is made private. As a campus and as academics, we are all missing out on something great with this change. The way this day has changed is counterproductive to our education here at Hamline. By taking away the scholarship fair and sharing in each others academic achievements, we are stunting our own pursuit of knowledge.

What makes Hamline unique is its smaller community which, in classes, creates a better environment for discourse. As students and as people we should never be afraid of learning. This means we present our ideas to each other. The scholarship fair allowed us to extend this discourse without having to be taking the same class. More importantly, it allowed students to cap off their projects by sharing with other students what they have been working on.

This wasn’t just a treat for the students presenting, but, as is part of intellectual discourse, it allowed those who still have not yet embarked on the ambitious task of taking on a project in their field to be exposed to the current discussions in academia. I can say from personal experience that I was greatly inspired by the scholarship fair. I got to see what people in my major were doing and see what those outside my field were contributing to their specialty areas. This deeply affected me. I have partaken in my own project, excited for the chance to share my work with my peers, only to find out that there is no formal platform where I can present it. Even if I did not have my own work to present, I would be just as disheartened. All of our fields cross over, especially when the panel opens up to questions and discussions after the group presents on their panel. During a discussion of a Global Studies project, many themes from my Literary and Cultural Theory course arose.

Not only did this help me and others connect our thoughts and ideas, and help us grow as students, but it also showed how Hamline valued its academics. First and foremost, a college or university, especially of the liberal arts variety, is focused on academics, on expanding our minds, on learning. With this in mind, why has the school taken away the one day in which we gather as a community and rejoice in our intellectual pursuits? We have plenty of other days off for various reasons, but the one day in which the time would be taken off to indulge ourselves for the very reason why we are going into debt, making the financial sacrifice, has been stripped away from us.

There is something disturbing about this. What kind of message is this school sending to their students/investors? Especially when the award ceremony for all departments is made exclusively for the winners. There is something elitist in the air when such things occur. It makes it almost secret; why not share in each other’s success? Yes, some people take the day off and don’t attend the scholarship fair. However, this should not restrict us from having the independent, go-getting, available (as not everyone can schedule their lives around this event) students from enriching their minds. This is my declaration: we should bring back the scholarship fair and open the award ceremony to all students. Maybe it won’t look as classy, maybe the food won’t be as good as when you only have to cater to a few, but everyone will benefit from such an experience.