While many students had the privilege ofexperiencing Harding and Spring Sing before their enrollment, I did not get the opportunity to enjoy it, since I transferred to Harding two months after my discharge from the South Korean military. With that in mind, my first day of class at Harding was my first visit to campus. Not to mention, it took me another two months to figure out the phrase “Spring Sing.”
What I have noticed here at Harding through Spring Sing is the university’s great interest in its students. An opportunity like this program tells me something about what this university is trying to communicate: “It is all about you.”
From what I have seen this week, Spring Sing is a school festival for Harding families and prospective students. However, it is more for us, the students. I have never seen Harding students get crazier than they have this week.
Unlike many Korean national and private universities back home, Spring Sing features students and students only. With overall provision of a director, it is run by students and performed by students. It is the interaction of the students and the efforts they put in that make all this possible and make the “spring” sing. And it sings well.
Most of the school festivals in South Korea, however, feature Korean pop idol groups and celebrities. Of course, people love it and go crazy about the celebrities, but you hardly ever see students perform on stage for the school they are representing. It is a craziness that has nothing to do with the students of the school they are in. In fact, it is a star-struck craziness.
I’m not saying that bringing such a presence on campus which features artists with big names is a bad idea, but it is wrong when it becomes the sole focus of a school’s festival and that is the only presentation of the school. If I were to take this situation in the context of a national sports event, it is like having a Greek athlete represent the United States of America in the Olympics. It makes no sense. Likewise, it makes no sense to me when a school pays a good deal of money to have somebody from outside perform at its festival instead of giving students an opportunity to represent the school they attend.
A school should be characterized by its own students and not by outsiders. You and I can be certain about this one thing: Harding cares about its students.
