Opinion
 

UH wears lack of spirit on sleeve

Timmy Le

I remember when I graduated from high school; I had a choice of going to either the University of Texas or the University of Houston. I chose UH because I knew if I went to UT, I would party so much that I would get corrupted and fail my classes. I pondered a bit on whether I made the right decision.

It didn't take me very long to realize that picking UH was a great decision. I have come to enjoy this school (even though it takes forever to find parking, and everywhere I go I see and hear construction). But, it's meeting great people that makes me love UH. However, the small things people do make me feel like there is a lack of school spirit at this University. 

I find it very irritating when I go to class and see people geared up in their UT, A&M and Baylor T-shirts and caps. There's absolutely no need to advertise other schools here. This makes me think that people consider UH to be some second-rate college and will gladly take any ticket out of Houston and transfer to another school when the opportunity arises. However, this is just my presumption about people who do this, even though I don't know them. That may be a bad trait of mine, but I can't help it. Luckily, I'm not the only one who feels this way.

It is a slap in UH's proverbial face when a student supports another school like that. It's just like being on a team, but supporting your rival. It just doesn't work like that. Even if you did transfer from another college to UH, don't bring its pride and spirit to our school. So you bought your shirt with your hard-earned money -- you can use it to sleep in at home.

This school has lost too much spirit over the years. The UH football team would be lucky to have a jam-packed stadium full of fans on a continual basis. I went to Austin once to visit my sister, and passed by the UT stadium and saw nothing but the colors orange and white worn by Longhorn fans. There is so much pride at that school, and yet I always seem to hear some people griping about how much they hate UH. I think, "Man, why can't UH have spirit like UT?" If you hate it so much, then why don't you just go to another college? There's Texas Southern, St. Thomas, Rice and Houston Community College just around the corner. So even if your parents told you that you had to stay in Houston for college, you have plenty of schools to choose from.

Be proud of where you go to school. I blame this on the fact that UH is considered a commuter school. People are aching to leave campus as early as possible because they don't want to spend their lives in rush-hour traffic. Maybe if UH was more local, rather than in the corner of downtown, then people wouldn't mind hanging around for a little while. But there's no point in worrying about that at this point. 

If there was more pride in this school, then perhaps UH would be a more lovable school for everyone. This just isn't about leaving other colleges' T-shirts at home, but it's about everything that should make UH what it could be. There should be more incentives to attend UH-related events because people do not realize what great things are offered to them for free. UH can be so much better, but it only starts when people start believing in the University, and choose not to disrespect it every chance they get. But first, let's start by not blatantly supporting other schools on campus.

Le, a columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at timbo301@yahoo.com.