by Laura Buccafurni

Many people show spirit for their school through dressing up in the famous orange and black. Some may where a shirt that says Go Beavs, and some may just show their pride by tooting their own horn through the marching band. Yes, I must confess that I was and still am one of those students, besides the band part. I have come to the conclusion that it is not what colors you wear, or what house you are apart of or even your major or if you are apart of the football team, showing spirit through the house that we all call the MU is the most important of them all. 

MU what does that even mean some say. I will tell you.
            MU means Memorial Union. Yes every campus claims to have one, but not quite like ours. Memorial means to remember.  Remember those who have walked these very halls before us that we take for granted today.  Remembering that list that lies on the 1st floor walls with those we have lost due to the war. Some who once were fellow classmates who have shared the Memorial Union with us. 

“The Memorial Union building first of all should keep alive the memory of those who gave all or risked all in the Spanish and World wars for the cause of humanity and truth.”
–Director James T. Jardine

Union means a joining of one.  As we all come through the doors of the MU we all are one.  We are one family no matter how big or how small or where you are from.  Spirit is shown through the 124 (or so) flags that salute our hall that encompass our student appreciation for cultures.  We come here to study, and to shout, to sleep and to eat and sometimes even to take a moment to stop, listen and breathe.

I come here for all the above. I have been working; no I would not call it that. I have been enjoying myself being apart of the MU. Apart of the MU business office staff. 

For two years now I have been enjoying myself be apart of everyday ups and downs. Being apart of answering questions anywhere from, where is 212, till what time are we open to, to which way is the women’s restroom, an of course the answer always is “well the women’s is down the hall to your left and the men’s is down the hall to your right”!  Well hopefully she will find it. Silly answers like that are what put the ‘it’ in Spirit.

You can not just expect spirit to be there where you work, spirit; it has to come alive where you work or whose lives you touch. It is a feeling that you get, from all the cheerfulness you create in a surrounding or a union you like to call home.

Other ways that I have seen spirit come to the MU is just by being myself.  Interacting with other co-workers on a slightly less “professional” level like learning fight song of the goeduck (gooeyduck), and actually singing it out loud around everyone else, that not only creates spirit, but it takes guts. Sending birthday cards for each other around the office and getting them back with signatures of those who you didn’t know, knew who you were. But they do.

Filling in for others when they can’t or going that extra step to make your customer smile, by taking time out of your day to show them where the ballroom is or hanging a “room-for-rent” ad for them, so they know it is up and done for all to see, not laying for days in that little black box out front.

While working the evening shift I have come across many new night staff faces I have not seen before, yet now when there is not much to do, I will lend a hand and vacuum or help move a couch. They obviously show spirit to be there at odd ours of the night, not because they are being paid, but a few actually are honored to be working in such a place that holds so many stories from the past, many of them as well as myself see the spirit of the MU come alive at night by walking passed the glass cases that show artist’s work and how what they do, by taking pictures and displaying it for us all to view is the way they contribute their spirit to the MU. Or even noticing a shadow of so called ghost!  Maybe it’s Allworth; maybe it’s the white lady or that girl who like to sleep in the learning lounge.  Even they cannot leave a wonderful place.