Assistant Editor’s Log

ADICE: Excellence

By Auburn Mann           

As I wrap up this series called ADICE, I would first like to give another acknowledgement to my friend Oladipo Adedeji, for drawing my attention to the power they hold.  The discipline exemplified through accountability, the beauty and strength of diversity, the character of integrity, the social politeness of civility.            

Excellence is manifested in many ways through going above and beyond what is expected of you, as you raise the level of performance and expectation for yourself. According to Aristotle, “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because of virtue of excellence, but rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” Thus, it’s not just a single action but an attitude; which essentially is an influence on your everyday reactions and behavior, and overall lifestyle.            

Possessing the value of excellence, can be a tool for success, not solely through the academic aspect of our lives, inserting excellent study and work habits from the beginning to the end of the semester as we begin/and or continue to prepare for final exams, but also, professionally, in scholastic sports and extracurricular endeavors, at our homes or for some dormitories being good student residents, as well as people.             

This multiplicity of excellence should be consistently exercised so we can be held responsible for it, therefore, reinforcing our commitment to it. It should be genuine, being that it should be from our own labor, not through an unfair and illegal advantage or by taking credit for someone else’s excellence.            

In addition, it should be the type of excellence that acts in accordance with the social standards of making it functional within the realm of society’s needs. Just as our excellence should be accountable, diverse, filled with integrity, and civility, vice versa, we can also use this value of excellence as a certain standard that will motivate and enable us as a university to want to be excellent in our accountability, diversity, integrity, civility, and by applying this standard to everything, it can allow us to be excellent at being excellent.             

I hope this assessment of our core values have served you as much as they have benefited me in my growth as a student and person. President Burnim was wise in putting these core values together, permitting them to provide as an ideological basis for achieving success, since  all five are great values to construct our attitudes around. We should all try to incorporate these into our daily lives as much as we can.            

As Aristotle said, any attitude must be habituated through continuous practice and application until it becomes second nature. The university’s core values should not be taken as five words in black or yellow that we pass by during our time here at Bowie State. Let’s continue to embrace these values as we make a positive impression on the larger community.