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THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN | FALL 2019 EDITORIAL BOARD
To our fellow Butler community members,
On Sept. 2, Butler University student Ty Brown passed away. Beyond being a student-run newspaper, the Butler Collegian is a member of the larger Butler community now mourning the loss of a student. As a student publication, we have responsibilities to fulfill both as journalists and as students. Today we write this as students. The sense of community that comes with being part of this small, Midwestern university is a defining feature of life on campus, and one of the reasons students feel proud to call themselves Bulldogs.
Although not every student may have known Ty personally, at a school like ours, there is only ever a few degrees of separation between members of the student body — we are much closer to each other than we may sometimes realize. Though we may not know those mourning Ty’s passing the hardest, we will see them on campus. They will be with us as we wait in line at Starbucks; we will walk past them on our way to class; we will study with them in the quiet corners of our campus.
It will not be obvious who is processing the loss of somebody close to them. While we mourn, the busy world of a Butler student will continue and the responsibilities will pile on with little reprieve for tragedy. In the coming weeks, the solidarity we share with our fellow Bulldogs will be imperative to the healing process. From the day we each set foot on this campus, the philosophy of a community of care is referenced so constantly it may lose meaning. It is not enough to simply talk about this notion; we must make this idea integral to our Butler experience. As a small, close-knit campus, everyday acts of compassion can have a significant and positive impact on the people around us. The friendly smile and nod of the head you offer the person you pass by goes farther than you consider in realizing our philosophy.
Every student on this campus shares a responsibility to be aware of those in our community who are processing the loss of Ty, however that process manifests itself. We must prove the implicit promise we all made: to respect and care for one another.
We owe it to each other.
The Butler Collegian Fall 2019 editorial board
