Facing adversity and tragedy, people are always given the chance to come together peacefully or break down. UNA has chosen the former in the case of the several recent deaths of UNA students.

The Flor-Ala Editorial Board is proud of UNA students for their actions during these challenging last few months. It is wonderful to see our community come together to celebrate and commemorate the lives of our lost peers.

Last summer, when Daniel Smith was killed in a kayaking accident on Cypress Creek, students came together to remember him with a memorial concert, and they continue working to fix the low head dam on the creek where Smith died.

UNA students honored Haley Mauldin similarly with a candlelight vigil after she passed away suddenly of a brain hemorrhage this fall. And, with the most recent death, students have shown an outpour of support for Chad Silcox, who died from severe burns shortly after Christmas.

The UNA community has exhibited cohesiveness during this time of tragedy that is both refreshing and reassuring. It is refreshing in a time when so many people seem to not care for one another and reassuring to know we are all a part of a community that really does come together when times get tough.

This attitude UNA students have displayed in a time of such tragedy represents an attitude that would serve us well to have at all times-an attitude of collaboration and goodwill.

The Flor-Ala Editorial Board encourages students to use the beginning of this new semester as a chance to keep doing what they’re doing, and transfer that to all areas of life. The students who came together to celebrate the lives of those who have passed have set an example we should all strive to follow.

Let’s work together as one campus during the coming changes to our university and at all times, rather than dividing into separate groups that avoid or fight with one another. The stronger we are as a community, the more successful we will be as a university.

The opinions expressed in the staff editorial above are the collective ideas of The Flor-Ala Editorial Board.