Prairie View A&M University- when you hear PVAMU what do you think?? When I walk around the campus each and every day, I see future doctors, nurses, teachers, architects, engineers, and the list goes on. Students here at PV often speak on issues that they know nothing about or think they know, or often “Co-sign” on things that they have not researched at all. I was born and raised in Bryan-College Station, home of Texas A&M University. As a matter of fact I could see the university from my backyard. In 2002 when deciding where I wanted to attend school post high school graduation, I decided on attending PVAMU, after attending Pantherland Day On the Hill, hearing the Storm play What You Won’t Do
For Love, and touring the campus. I remember that day looking back when I asked myself what could PVAMU do for me as a young African American man trying to find a way in this huge world. It was not until I got here that I rephrased the question to what could I do for PVAMU, that I felt comfortable with my being here.
People always say “One day PV will be Texas A&M at Prairie View”, I just want to say “HELLO IDIOT IT ALREADY IS!!!” People feel that if a name change comes that it will make a major change to the university officially making us a “white” school.
What people here fail to realize is that your alumni is what you make of it. We often look at TAMU in College Station, and say, “Why don’t we have economic development? Or “Damn they have a bowling alley,” but we do nothing to enhance our own campus. We hardly have any students attending city council meetings, yet we make up three fourths of the population of the city of Prairie View.
Another thing students often fail to realize is that TAMU College Station has well over 45,000 students, therefore their entire infrastructure is different from that here in Pantherland. Aggies take pride in their university; they give back, and love and enjoy their time in Aggieland. Not only do they have rich love and passion for their university, but also for the surrounding community. With the exception of a few organizations on campus when was the last time PV had a massive community service project?
Someone has to take the initative to stand up and say we want change here I dream that one day the city of Prairie View will look like College Station, but I know it will not likely happen in my lifetime.
Students need to start taking more pride in the place you call your school. Learn your university history, meet your administration and city leaders, build life long bonds with people while you are here, and most importantly when you graduate come back to “The Hill,” give back, and have a voice in what goes on, and PVAMU will forever keep its legacy as the first class university of choice for African Americans in Texas, the U.S., and the world.