What Happens Now?

By Linzi Sisler

Engl 336:001

Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant, Pastor to Courtney McCoy, a student that was recently killed in an incident at Frostburg State University, came to the University on November 30 to talk with students about “What Happens Now?” Dr. Bryant started his presentation by telling a story of a girl who was having difficulty decided what to do about going back to college. In the story, the girls grandmother put three pots on the stove and placed carrots in one, an egg in one, and coffee in the third. After the three items were done cooking, she asked her grand daughter to comment on the textures of the three items. The carrots, which were originally hard, were now soft. The egg, which was originally soft in the middle, became hard, and the coffee changed the water into coffee. He then ended his story by saying, “To know what kind of strength you have is to see what you do when you are placed in hot water.”

Dr. Bryant then talked about the demographic segregation that is taking place at Frostburg. He believes, “When you arrive on the campus, you are a citizen of Frostburg.” He noticed that a lot of people have a very strong sense of where they are from, and people from certain counties only hand out with other people from their county. Dr. Bryant believes that this is one of Frostburg’s biggest problems. We all need to come together as a campus and stop worrying so much about who is from what county.

Dr. Bryant then opened the floor to discussion on the subject to see what students, alumnae, and faculty thought about the situation in Frostburg. Nigel Perkins, and Alumnae of Frostburg, stated, “Allow yourself to expand beyond your normal realms and you will gain more of a sense of community.” Many students felt that there should be programs offered to incoming freshman in order to gain more of a sense of community. However, others felt that college students need to take initiative, and not expect everything to be handed to them.

While the discussion did not lead to any immediate answers, it did help to get the feelings of the students out. In addition, it gave the University some ideas of what they can do to help the students in these hard times, and how to help new students feel welcome at Frostburg. Dr. Jesse Ketterman addressed the students by saying, “College is what you make of it. We don’t have the answers to all the questions, but we’re here to help.”