We took a look at all of the overwhelmingly positive and impressive events being reported in the news section this issue, and we decided that we must praise you, BU. Yes, to steal a memorable line from a ’90s one-hit-wonder, we’re going to praise you like we should.

Against the fairly poor odds created by the ever-shrinking budget of Harpur College’s music department, BU’s male a cappella group, The Binghamton Crosbys, is one of the top seven college a cappella groups in the western hemisphere.

Now, if you’re not impressed (and hopefully a little bit excited), perhaps you didn’t understand us correctly. That’s one of the top seven in THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE! Think about that ‘ it’s absolutely amazing. A good chunk of campus gets excited when one of our athletic teams make it to the finals in a tournament that decides the best in a conference of nine schools, and the Crosbys are one of the best in the western hemisphere. It’s time we all jumped up and down and did a little dance of appreciation for the accomplishments of the Crosbys.

And the artistic accomplishments of BU students don’t stop there.

A cast of BU students is joining with a cast of student actors recently arrived from Chile for a creative new production of the classic play ‘West Side Story.’ The group is then traveling to Chile in May to perform their version of the ‘Romeo and Juliet’-inspired story.

Now, producing an internationally performed play is impressive enough to deserve the notice of BU’s community, but on top of that, we heard a rumor that the director initially had trouble getting the rights to perform his version of the show because the owners of the rights to the play thought the idea was so good they could make some money off of it on Broadway, and wanted to save it for that use.

Not to mention that it seems BU is upholding its reputation as a premier academic institution by incorporating revolutionary new teaching methods into its course catalog, in the form of a team-taught history class being offered next fall on the Cold War.

We know this might not seem overly impressive or interesting to a lot of people at first, but when you consider that looking at a major historical event from multiple perspectives in one class incorporates the latest (and often controversial) historical methodology of concentrating on the big picture, as well as new-age teaching methods like team-teaching ‘ well, we think it’s noteworthy.

Basically, what it comes down to is that there is a lot of exciting and praise-worthy stuff going on around us here at BU, and we’re glad to be a part of it.

After all, isn’t this what college life is all about? Taking the opportunity to follow our passions while we have the time and youthful energy to, not to mention the rare ability to be a part of a community where we can literally share in the accomplishments and excitement of other people’s passions?

So let’s all enjoy it, and show our fellow Bearcats that we appreciate their contributions, and we’re glad to share it with them.