What would entice you to wear an “I (heart) KSU” T-shirt or to hang a poster in your dorm window saying “KSU & proud of it?”

Wednesday, Kent State’s administration kicked off a grassroots campaign in hopes of increasing pride for the university. The initiative, TOGETHER: Excellence in Action, began with an ice cream social for faculty and staff and giveaways for students in the Student Center.

According to University Communications and Marketing, the campaign will target faculty and staff first, and, ideally, the pride generated among them will “trickle” down to students.

But we wonder: How is a computer science professor going to genuinely transmit his pride to students when he has openly admitted to them that he fears for his job? Or how is an art professor going to transmit to her students the right message when she’s teaching under a ceiling that’s leaking?

Pride isn’t something that can be bought in the classroom. Pride won’t come from ice cream and giveaways, which are the typical strategies of any campaign begging for attention. But it will come from actions that will stick in people’s minds— actions that will remind us of Kent State without physically having to bear it or see it. Pride will come from unexpected tactics.

A group of freshmen would never forget if President Lester Lefton, unannounced, showed up in Cartwright Hall to share his broad knowledge of psychology during their class. Students in a sports course would appreciate if Coach Darrell Hazell visited their class to talk about team building.

The higher-ups of the university can’t buy our pride. If they made actual, personal efforts to appear in classes or give speeches that encourage the students at Kent State to take pride in their school and reassure them of their career goals, then maybe we’d all be more supportive of the efforts the university is making in order to create a better, proud campus.

Surprise us, Kent State, and we will be Golden Flashes for life.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.