I try to live under the impression that people, in general, respect each other; however, it seems to be more of a fifty-fifty shot. Is it really that hard to play nice with each other folks? I’m not saying you have to like everybody, but at least attempt to be civil. Let’s recount some respectful and disrespectful moments from the recent past!

On Sunday, December 5, I chatted with newly accepted and prospective students for the Admissions Virtual Open House. Sure, they’re trying to impress the University if they’re prospective, no one wants to make a bad impression, but these were some great people to talk to! On top of it all, there were quite a few times where I was swamped with music majors and it makes me happy to see my department growing. I spent over an hour talking to one prospective student, and it brought up some nostalgic feelings to hear that he was essentially in the exact same position I was when I applied to UNH.

The next group of respectful people I’d like to thank is The Charger Bulletin staff! So many of you wrote articles for so many of the issues, and some of you did more than I could have hoped. I have some big plans to improve some things over Winter break and hopefully that will help increase our numbers and get more people involved. It’s been a great semester and I hope we can do even better next semester!

Time to move on to those respect related face-palm incidents that I’ve run into recently. A few days ago, I was at work when a professor burst through the door to the office and in a demanding voice told us to call campus police because his classroom was locked. Now, I’m all for helping people out with stuff like that, the office I work for even has a phone conveniently located that we frequently let professors use to call around campus when they have to, but there’s a difference with this situation. This professor wasn’t being courteous and respectful; he was acting as though we were there only to serve him. A few minutes after we called campus police, the professor re-entered the office and determined that despite the fact the CP was already on the way, he needed to call again. He proceeded to shout into the phone that an officer needed be sent to unlock the door immediately, that they are here to support him, a professor, and then he slammed the phone down. If you need something done for you, be kind, courteous, and respectful and the majority of the time you’ll be helped much faster and won’t create “enemies (read: people who don’t like you very much).”

Here at UNH we, as students, have a nice little community to live and learn in. Every part of this campus, the faculty and staff, and the students all deserve to coexist without any issues. We all have personal problems, difficulties with a professor, or difficulties with an on campus office at one point or another, but that’s no reason to act out in poor taste. Depending on the type of issue, there’s always a way to report it properly if it warrants it, but don’t smear the other party just because you’re unhappy or angry in the moment.

I’d like to end by wishing everyone good luck on their finals, and I hope everyone has a fantastic Winter break! This is the last issue of The Charger Bulletin for first semester, but we’ll be back on January 26, 2011! Thanks for reading the paper that Joann and I, as well as our staff, work so hard to put together!