Health & Care: The hills we died on Hello, friends, faculty and classmates! My name is Austin, I use he/him pronouns, and I am a senior in the College of Nursing with a research focus in HPV vaccination (more on that later). With just six short months left in my undergraduate career, I have decided to bring my opinions to a new platform. I must say, this medium is liberating after being limited to my Tweets’ 240 characters for some time now, but nevertheless, I will try to keep the content just as concise. I will spare you my student organization affiliation list since it mirrors that of my peer columnists. The most important thing you need to know about me is that I am a mixed-race AfricanAmerican. My ancestors were slaves from Western Africa, colonizers from Great Britain, Catholic Immigrants from Ireland, and Ashkenazi Jews from Nazi-occupied Europe. That being said, it should be no surprise when I say that I am not fond of Adolf Hitler, Jefferson Davis, George Wallace or their living heir, Donald J. Trump. Over the next few months, I’ll be spending much of my word count discussing Healthy People 2020’s primary determinants of health: Economic Stability, Education, Social and Community Context, Health and Health Care, and Neighborhood and Built Environment. I would like to start this series with a solution to unfavorable determinants. Allyship – that is, shared investment in the success of our marginalized classmates, is the most infallible way to generate communities that exhibit optimal social, physical, and mental health. The caveat is that we need it from classmates, administrators, faculty and staff; being an ally is a shared responsibility. At the Rock on October 31, 2018 Vice Chancellor Vincent Carilli attested that even though our university lacks racial diversity, we thrive in the area of “diversity of idea.” This is not allyship. “Diversity of idea” is something that is expected, if not inherent, of every university. Statistically speaking, I would argue that if a University of 28,000 students is only able to produce an environment diverse in ideas, then we are much farther from the Top 25 than we thought. A university’s “diversity of idea” is essentially a participation trophy—an affordable accolade for those 21st Century institutions that merely participate in higher education. Regardless of your views on participation trophies, it is neither selfish nor unorthodox for little-leaguers to dream of winning a World Series. I approached the Vice Chancellor and asked him to do better, to help foster a campus community that competes with peer institutions in ethnic, linguistic, and cultural arenas. After elaborating upon my request, he smiled, asked, “Can we make this a teaching moment?” This is not allyship. Remedying our hostile campus climate is no longer a question of “What will we do,” but rather a question of “When will we do it?” Admittedly, the battle is lost for many of us upperclassmen, yet we press on. When we graduate, all we leave behind is a time capsule. In it lies the memories of when we felt safe and when we felt scared; statements of what we challenged and what we tolerated; and most importantly, roadmaps for our novice successors, so that they may take back the hills we died on. Yours, AS