While many colleges across the nation are facing problems with enrollment, funding, and other areas of administrative concern, Loyola finds itself in a unique position.

The past few years have been tumultuous for our humble school. We’ve gone through a devastating natural catastrophe, untold faculty and administrative changes, years of construction and fluctuating enrollment numbers.

Loyola recognizes this and is making attempts to change. Everyone in the university community needs to support this effort to improve because ours is a situation that doesn’t benefit anyone.

If those attempts succeed, we could find ourselves in a position of stability and prosperity instead of uncertainty.

A lot is going on that has the potential to nudge the university in the direction of prosperity.

For the first time in years, construction on campus is over. After adding levels to the West Road garage, refurbishing Monroe Hall and tearing down the old library, we have a truly beautiful campus.

Loyola has several nationally recognized programs. Many organizations are earning prestigious awards, while various departments are being given great opportunities for growth.

The university is taking on a strategic plan, Transforming Loyola 2020, which is giving the school a better framework for decision-making and academic planning.

Institutional Advancement, Loyola’s fundraising arm, is taking on the largest funding campaign in our college’s history. This has the potential to improve our financial stability.

New Orleans is burgeoning. The city is increasingly known as being a center for creativity and the arts. New Orleans has even been called “Hollywood South” because of the amount of filming being done here.

This is an exciting time to be at Loyola.

We have our share of problems, as does any college. Some of them won’t be resolved easily — but they don’t all have to be for us to grow and be proud of our school.

Students can be more energetic about the fate of our school. We should double down on this and really commit to helping the university grow. If that means being more involved in the Student Government Association, student news media or athletic program, we need to do that.

It can be hard to find the energy to be committed to one more thing, but don’t look at it as one more commitment. Look at it as the commitment to hold together your other obligations, because if we can’t capitalize on what’s going well, it will make all our other obligations more difficult.

Let’s come together as a community and engage in some soul searching and find out what we want to be.

The editorial represents the majority opinions of The Maroon’s editorial board and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Loyola University.