Many students, staff members and alumni will agree that our university has a beautiful campus, great professors and an even better community, but one problem we are facing is how we judge success for ACU. We have a wonderful stadium, beautiful buildings and a new line at the bean. This, however, is not what makes ACU our home.

We need to be emphasizing our faculty and staff: Dr. Beck will continue to be a freshman favorite, the hilarities from Dr. Moore keep us on our feet at chapel and we can’t forget about Miss Sharon always greeting us at the bean.

ACU is already well known for having views everywhere on campus, but every campus is known for its beauty. What makes our university home is the family, the community and our faith. We have all of these great buildings, but what matters the most is what’s on the inside. The first thing we saw on our campus tour was the tower and Jacob’s dream, but the things we remember are the people experiences.

We cannot simply judge our success on the amount of students who attend our university or whether or not we have D1 championship titles. These things, of course are great, but they aren’t what we value most here.

Ask any student what their favorite thing about ACU is and you’ll hear answers such as “rushing traditions,” “caring people” and “support from our fellow wildcats.” We can continue to try to increase the amount of students we have on campus, but our actions will be futile if we don’t focus on why students came in the first place.

Looking back to the LGBTQ issue, the university wants to clarify our stances and make them more consistent with other policies and ideals. This, however, upset many of the students, alum and general public. While we are under no authority to entertain the opinion of outsiders, it is very necessary for our campus to be happy with the policies that affect our students. Multiple university departments even sent out emails showing love and compassion immediately follow the announcement.

This is just an example where ACU wanted to better our university, but missed the point for why student love it. We are here for love and compassion for all who attend.

Any attempt at making our university better is wonderful as long as it’s done with pure intentions in mind. We can not focus on material things with our college because that’s not what makes it home, but if we pair bettering campus with emphasis on our community, then we will see what real success is.