“May I have your attention please, May I have your attention please, Will the Real Slim Shady please stand up? We’re going to have a problem here…” ~ Eminem

Indeed, we already have a problem. Our beloved university is struggling. Many of you, sitting in your newly constructed dorm rooms with your national championship poster hanging proudly on the wall, may be surprised by this news. Yet, the signs of this struggle are apparent. They appear all across campus and occasionally in this newspaper.

Last week, for instance, The Crimson White ran stories about both the SGA’s unprecedented effort to become a more diverse, transparent organization and Kappa Alpha’s decision to cancel its Old South parade. These were good things. However, they symbolize a larger issue that our campus community is only beginning to confront.

The University of Alabama is in a state of transition. It is transitioning from being an institution primarily concerned with the education of young people from Alabama into an institution focused on attracting bright minds from around the country. How to adapt to this new purpose while maintaining our Southern identity and special responsibility to this state is the critical question facing our generation of students. While this question will not be answered in its entirety until years after we have graduated, we owe it to our alma mater and ourselves to begin searching for answers now.

Fortunately, many students are already talking about this issue, perhaps without realizing it. Questions about how to maximize our ability to reach out and positively impact the surrounding community, how to enhance the quality of our academic programs and how to support freshmen as they adjust to college life all fit into the much larger question of how to effectively manage the University’s changing dynamic.

Throughout the upcoming year, these subjects will also be discussed on the opinions page of The Crimson White. Ideally, our columnists will provide a voice for every student and a voice that challenges every student. Our goal is simple: to engage with you, our readers, in our campus conversation.

Occasionally, being the political hacks that many of my fellow columnists and I are, we will be dragged into the world of politics. Such an outcome is unavoidable in a highly charged election year. Make no mistake, though, the first test of our ability to contribute to and participate in the larger society that awaits us is the way we choose to participate in our immediate society at The University of Alabama. The most important things we will opine about are therefore the issues that directly confront this community.

The discussion about those issues, however, must not be limited to a few organizations and The Crimson White. To have any meaningful impact, this discussion must include everyone.

That is why we need you Real Slim Shadys out there to please stand up. Stand up and join in the process of shaping the growth of this university. Look to the variety of views published here only as an expression of the conversations already taking place around campus.

Don’t fall into the false dichotomies of race, class and greek affiliation. Just get on the mic and spit it. Spit your thoughts out to every organization you’re a part of and to anyone who will listen. Write a letter to the editor. Let us know your opinion. Let your voice be heard.

As students, we all have an unbelievable opportunity to leave our mark on an institution that greatly needs our ideas and leadership.

We can do it. There’s a Slim Shady in all of us. Let’s all stand up.

Tray Smith is the opinions editor of The Crimson White.