Why Choose LSU Over Southern?

In past years, Southern University has reached new heights of success and has received many accolades for both academic and athletic excellence. The university is graduating students at a record high, and despite rumors of losing accreditation, it is clear that Southern University will be a vital part of the Louisiana landscape for years to come.
So the question being posed is why schools like LSU and ULL garner more love and support from the African American community than they give their local HBCU?
In all honesty, I believe that this negative reputation surrounding our great university is made by our own students and alumni.
In speaking with students that actually go to SU, they speak of Southern as more of a necessary evil than an actual stepping stone to greatness. This is a problem of greater severity than any outside slander. The fact is that if we don’t love and appreciate what our own HBCU has to offer, then how can we expect those from the outside looking in to appreciate our greatness?
The short answer to this question is that we can’t.
When I ask what makes schools such as LSU better than our own Southern University, the most solid answers I get revolve around the AIDS epidemic that Southern University has become the defacto poster-child of in Louisiana.
To make this clear for all, Baton Rouge is the AIDS capital of America, not Southern. AIDS is a Louisiana problem, not just a Southern problem.
Without going into statistics, it is also important to remember that LSU’s campus and population dwarfs that of Southern. So if the numbers are true and every 1 in 100,000 Baton Rouge residents do have the disease, then it’s a far greater likelihood that you will find it in greater abundance in a heavily populated campus than our relatively smaller and less populated campus.
Another thing I hear a lot is that LSU parties are more “lit” than Southern parties.
While this is more subjective than anything, I’m willing to bet that our Ques have something to say about that blasphemous misconception.
When we get together as a group and decide to have fun, Southern students do more than just dance and sing along to the songs that are played; we bring soul and energy that is unmatched by any other.
You can measure loudness, and you can count how many people show up, but you can’t quantify soul.
So to the people that say that Southern isn’t doing this, or isn’t good enough at that, my response is that what we aren’t doesn’t matter as much as what we are.
Our failures are not nonexistent, but our victories are so numerous that our shortcomings are an afterthought in the grand scheme of things.
We are on the cusp of greatness as a university, and to say that I am honored to be able to be apart of such an experience is a massive understatement. But we have to believe in ourselves and believe in each other in these times, because if we don’t, then nobody else will.
They throw dirt on us because they know we will shine otherwise. They slander us because they know if the world was to hear us speak, nothing would be the same. And they hate what we are, because they fear what we can be if we stand united. So if they want something to talk about, then let’s give them something to talk about.
We have to be on such a level that our greatness is unquestionable, so that the next time they speak on us, they can only speak on our greatness. And speak, they will.