Traditions are usually events that are not questioned, not variable in their path. They are something to be held to the highest regard because of the respect they obtain during their stature and curriculum.

So, what about here at Point Park? This university openly advertises its tradition of training students to become professionals in their area of craft. They advertise the city’s tradition in its dedication to sports, to the arts, and to history unto itself. This university also has a known reputation for hyping up its regarded clubs, like United Student Government (USG).

USG has said and done many things to have a reputation, both good and bad. Something cool about this university is that students are given a platform to make their positions known. And here’s mine:

USG is straying from a tradition formed with U-View Television for the annual United Student Government debates. During my time here, I’ve had the absolute pleasure of being part of multiple live broadcasts for the USG debates. I remember running camera for it my sophomore year. I was on camera one, which meant I had to quickly switch my shot live to get the position of both candidates. It taught me how attentive you have to be when participating in a production like this.

Then last year I had the opportunity to co-host. Being part of both of these productions have taught me invaluable skills when it comes to doing actual live shows. There are so many students that coordinated and put in countless hours to make these productions good quality and objective for their viewers, and that’s exactly what we did. We put in the work to give the viewers all the information they needed to make an educated decision on who should run USG.

So why is this tradition being discontinued as of 2019? It has come to my attention that USG would prefer and is doing a town hall-styled seminar in which someone that is not eligible to vote will moderate the event. Now, we see town halls on television all the time, right? So, what’s the issue?

This is an absolute misfortune for two reasons. One, this is taking away a huge opportunity from so many students to participate and produce a live broadcast on behalf of the university’s television station, which is that real-world experience this university so commonly refers to, whether it be on-camera or on the production side. These last two years so many people came together. Not that this town hall won’t require teamwork, it absolutely will, but with the professionalism and consistency the debates required, I’m left unsure as to how this town hall will be able to replicate that.

The other question I’m left with is with USG taking control of the event in this manner, how will it be insured that this town hall will be objective? The fact that U-View will take no part in preparing this is an absolute atrocity. Fear has driven USG to undo the debates to avoid truths from being uncovered, truths that they rather wish to be left unsaid.

We typically do not break traditions, or stray away from their path. Traditions are created and maintained to uphold a reputation and obtain credibility. So where does this leave USG? Well, with breaking one of many traditions.