Tents. There were so many tents. For 20 days, all over the Old Main lawn, tents. It's one of spring 2000's most memorable images.

And more amazing than the tents was the fact that many students could explain the reason why people had voluntarily chosen to live in such crude temp housing.

All over campus, you could find students involved in discussion about whether we should join the Worker's Rights Consortium and the ethics of sweatshops. The public discourse caused by the tent city was quite amazing.

One year ago yesterday, the tents were taken down, but as they were removed the mood was one of hope. Students for Accountability and Reform, the group that organized the campout, felt as though they had made some good headway towards accomplishing the goal of the protest, which was to actively involve the Penn State administration in discussions to assess the viability of joining the WRC.

The WRC, according to STAR, would have done a better job at monitoring factories of corporations used by the university to manufacture Penn State apparel. By joining the WRC, the purchase of Penn State apparel could be done with a good conscience, and one would not have to worry about any Nittany Lion clothing being created under adverse working conditions. And when university officials agreed to include STAR members on the WRC assessment committee, the general consensus among protesters was that the tent city had been a success.

And so, come the end of Spring 2000, the student body marched into the summer a little bit more knowledgeable about sweatshops, the WRC, and Penn State's place in the world community. A feeling of social-consciousness resonated throughout the student body.

But soon, to quote The Get-Up Kids, "summer swallowed us whole." And unfortunately, when it spit us out again, the majority of the student body had forgotten about the lessons of the campout protests of spring 2000.

That feeling of social consciousness that was so prevalent before summer break didn't return with the student body. The gusto over the issue of corporate accountability concerning sweatshops had been faded by the summer sun.

Last fall, the Apparel Advisory Committee, the panel formed to look into Penn State's potential affiliation the WRC, met week after week and eventually decided against Penn State's entrance into the WRC.

But this decision hardly made waves throughout the student body, because by the time the decision was announced in October, student interest towards the topic was all but extinguished. The members of STAR were still very much pushing for reform, but the general student body, whose interest was so piqued by the tent city campout of Spring 2000, just didn't seem to care anymore.

Not to point any fingers, but I blame it wholly on the summer.

We underestimate the summer. We forget how long a time span it is. We forget the affect that time has on cooling mass support of an issue.

As summer 2000 loomed on the horizon, those involved in the WRC crusade erroneously assumed that the popular support amassed from the campout would be there when they got back from summer break.

Today, as summer 2001 looms, the Penn State student body finds itself in a similar position. This time, however, the issue is not sweatshops, but the current state of race relations here on campus.

As we step into our three-month break from the land of Penn State, we must not assume that when we return, everything will be right where it was when we left. But while the student body is currently impassioned about bringing changes to how the university approaches race issues, we have seen before how the long summer break tends to disarm social movements here on campus.

For the continued growth and maturation of Penn State as an institution of higher education, it is imperative that the summer does not diminish student support of unity issues here on campus. And the key to ensure that it does not wane is one word: redefinition.

Redefining what it means to be a Penn State student is the only way to ensuring that the passion towards unity that is currently felt by the student body will continue to be felt by the student body next fall. Each student must redefine on a personal level what is means to be a student here on campus, and through this redefinition will arise the dialogue that will continue the student body's current passion for unity.

As today is the last day of classes, and most of us will be out of here in less than a week, redefining w hat it means for you to be a Penn State student may seem like a tall order.

But it can start out as simple as remembering the images and experiences taken from the HUB "village" over the last several days.

By embracing the sense of community that was felt in the HUB this week, suddenly the Penn State experience seems incomplete without such a coming together. Therefore, by ensconcing a sense of solidarity within your personal definition of being a Penn State student, you will feel cheated if you do not feel such solidarity semester after semester.

Personally redefining what it means to be a Penn State student may be hard, but it's the only way that the student body can be assured that the current passions that are felt throughout campus will not be weakened by the long break ahead of us.

After all, the idea of a unified Penn State is a concept far too important to be faded by the summer sun.