Guilford College has a reputation for being a socially conscious school and that is how many of its student would like to think of it. However, a new kind of student has been showing up on campus: the arm chair activist. Arm chair activists are those that, put simply, talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. These students are seemingly outnumbering traditional activists that gave Guilford its reputation. The Princeton Review recently gave Elon University a higher activism rating than Guilford College. The Guilford chapter of Amnesty International had to disband this year due to lack of student interest. The most visible recent student protest were those camping for Oaxaca who intended to camp for 20 days but left after 17, citing disillusionment as their reason. Rather than finding a new approach, Oaxaca protesters packed their bags.

With Guilford’s growing student body, is our college losing its identity? Are Guilford students just looking for any cause? It’s easy to forget about actual political action with the distraction of schoolwork and when everyone around you is discussing it. It’s no mystery why Guilford activist have gotten lazy. Mounting responsibilities appear to leave little time for social change.

This excuse is used by many in and out of college. You can hear former activists throughout the decades saying, “I just don’t have the time anymore.” Hearing this defense from those years out of college with full-time jobs and families, we shrug our shoulders and think to ourselves, “Well, that makes sense.” Can we accept this reason from ourselves at such an early stage in our lives with relatively low responsibility?

Many students came to Guilford College, at least in part, because of its reputation for political activism. Students need to remember why they came to Guilford and what it was they wanted to do here. If you have time to party or go to a movie, you can go to a rally. If you have time to cruise Facebook, you can write an email to your senator or representative. Just because you can’t spend 20 hours a week working towards a cause doesn’t mean you can’t get involved. So get out of those armchairs and back on your feet. Give yourself and Guilford back its much-loved identity.