Longwood students have been busy all week writing about what love means to them on a large board stationed behind Lankford Student Union. Located in Longwood's Free Speech Zone, the board is there thanks to Longwood/Hampden-Sydney Baptist Collegiate Ministries (BCM).
The purpose of the board is to "show Longwood's campus what God says love is," according to Anne Claire Mizelle, a member of BCM Council. "If people are struggling with relationships, these are the qualities that make for a healthy relationship [e.g., patience, etc]."
Even though BCM provided the board to the campus, Mizelle said the idea was not focused on highlighting the organization. "The board was to serve Longwood, not to show off BCM. The purpose was not to publicize our orga nization."
But what is love? Students have written a number of things from the names of their significant others (we assume) to lyrics from songs. To Amanda Krzywicki, all of that makes sense.
"Everyone always asks what love really is," said Krzy wicki in an email. "And through my time at BCM, I've re alized that love amongst each other is way different than God's love. We weren't trying to be evangelistic, but more so asking the campus what they believe love is. We wanted the campus to open in discussion about what love truly means to them."
The idea of the board came a bit from precedence as well as the mere recognition of a holiday that has become increas ingly commercialized. "The idea at first was to get discus sion going around campus, and since Valentine's Day was coming up, we found that talking about love could bring up different people's viewpoints about what love truly is," said Mizelle.
Krzywicki added that a few years ago, BCM sponsored an event that dealt with judging. They were able to obtain positive feedback from that project. "As a new council, we wanted to try the same thing again, but with a twist."
The board may not be a high point of conversation for many, but it definitely seems to be a sight that has gotten many people to stop and look at some of the different mes sages, and of course take part by writing their own.
Krzywicki said the board was covered within 24 hours of being up. "Even the legs of the board were covered in opin ion. I was super surprised at how well everyone responded to the board. It shows that people are not afraid to give their opinion."
You still have some time to write on the board, but it is limited. Krzywicki and Mizelle said the board would come down Feb. 16th
