Students sit on the grass outside of Norlin Library at University of Colorado on Tuesday, September 3, 2024. (Andrew Wevers/CU Independent)
Alexia: Hi! I’m Alexia Bailey, a sophomore here at CU Boulder. While I may just be in my second year, I’m here to share everything I’ve picked up so far, which is a surprising amount of information. “What’s Eating at Alexia” is my unofficial and unfiltered guide to some of the things that being a CU Boulder Buff brings. Think of it as your guide to navigating everything that makes CU Boulder, well, CU Boulder. Whether you’re a freshman finding your footing or a senior with “no body, no crime” level grievances about finals week, I’m here to share my takes, tips and honest observations on everything from the sometimes-unpredictable Buff Bus system to navigating campus protests (or dodging them entirely). College is a wild, unforgettable ride, and “What’s eating at Alexia” is here to make sense of some of it, one opinion at a time.
Dearest readers, as the year draws to a close, I have to ask: Did you expect your school year to end the way it did? Did you accomplish what you set out to do? Did you pass that math class?
I’ll tell you how mine ended. My year wrapped with the University of Colorado Boulder’s chancellor, Justin Schwartz, alongside the entire CU Student Government Legislative Council, singing me “Happy Birthday.” It was two days late, but a sweet gesture, nonetheless.
I’ve dedicated myself to be honest with you, so I’ll admit this: Sophomore year pushed me to the point of begging Bear Creek to live up to its name and maul me. This year forced me to have no choice but to go visit CAPS. And yet, somehow, I’m still here, we all are, slightly more tired and with a collection of really specific awful memories that feel too surreal to belong to just one academic year. I mean, it’s been a hard year to go to CU Boulder. We’ve had a terrifying swatting incident, major polarity between groups around campus, and instability in our campus morale following both the contract with Key Lime Air and OpenAI. Our motto of “Let Your Light Shine” feels a little…dim.
Yet, as my new year’s resolution of radical optimism remains, I have to remain positive for the upcoming school year. The pendulum always swings back, folks. Yes, CU as a whole has a long way to go in accessibility, transparency and ethics, but I think that this year has served as a test for our student body. We have protested wrongs and have pushed CU Boulder to make changes that we deem necessary.
And that’s where our motto still lives, not in the institution itself, at least not yet, but in the people who refuse to let things stay the same. In the students who organize, who speak up, who write emails that feel like they disappear into the void and then send them anyway. In the people who care enough to be frustrated in the first place. This year proved that people here are paying attention and that we’re willing to challenge the systems we’re part of, and I’m happy to say that I was one of these people.
When I started my position on CU Student Government, I was absolutely terrified. CUSG to me was this big, giant, all-encompassing entity full of entitled daddy’s money-rich kids. I’m glad to publish that they, in fact, are not. They are some of the most knowledgeable, understanding and powerful students that I have met in my whole two years that I have gone here. They care deeply about this campus, even when it would be easier not to. They debate policies that most students will never hear about and carry the weight of representing thousands of voices at once. It’s not glamorous work, but it’s important. It’s important that a group of students care so much, and so passionately, about representing diversity around campus. It’s because of CUSG that I was able to publish my first bill. It’s because of CUSG that I was able to push the Chancellor to make changes to the school’s Americans with Disabilities Act status.
So yes, dearest reader, this year has pushed me, pushed all of us, in ways that we were most definitely not prepared for at the beginning of this year. But institutions don’t change on their own. Students like us change them. Slowly, sometimes unsuccessfully, but the effort itself matters. Showing up matters. Caring loudly, even when it feels like no one is listening, matters. And that’s the real takeaway.
As we move into the next year, I don’t think the goal is to suddenly have everything figured out. I think it’s to keep that same energy, to keep questioning, keep organizing and keep caring. To keep holding this place, and each other, accountable. Because if our light is dim right now, it’s not gone. It’s just waiting on us to keep it on.
As my editor-in-chief, Greta Kerkhoff, tearfully stated at the end of her tenure, “You did good work this year, and I’m so proud of you.”
Contact CU Independent Opinion Editor Alexia Bailey at alexia.bailey@colorado.edu
