Throughout the past couple years at ENC, there has been a little joke circulating among my friends: What is the difference between the campus environment you have at ENC versus the environment you have at a cemetery? It’s a trick question. Both are equally depressing, plus you wouldn’t want to be there after 5 p.m.”

Have you ever walked out of your resident hall, screamed “Hello!” and the only responses you received were the echoes of your own voice? This happens every single day at ENC. I’ve seen tumbleweed roll from Gardner to Shields like in an old Western.

For too long, ENC has been branded as a “fun-free zone,” so who do we blame?

It’s easy to point fingers at the administration for turning a blind eye to our constant complaints. It’s even easier to blame the Board of Trustees for collectively being a group of “killjoys.”

Well, if that’s what you’re thinking, my friend, you need to think again.

How cliché of the ENC student body to blame everything on the administration and the board. The only thing that you are promised is a degree if you complete your requirements. Each student must take the initiative to step outside of his or her dorm room every now and then to create an inviting college community.

We get stuck in our own worlds when we choose to remain in the dorms and be a campus of introverts. Is it because everyone at ENC is equally scared of one another? Do we all like to be depressed and uninspired? If the SGA doesn’t have any events scheduled, why can’t a few students plan some on their own?

There are pool and ping-pong tables in the Underground. We have air hockey and foosball in the Dugout. There are computers and really comfortable chairs in Spange. Why not hang out there every now and then instead of just in your room? Should I remind you that all three locations have a number of huge flat-screens TVs that are there waiting for us to use them?

Hold a video game tournament, have a movie night open to student suggestions, do something. Instead of  constantly complaining about how dead campus is, how about we collectively, or even individually, bring some life to it. We must create the welcoming, supporting community environment that we all desire.