Editor's note: Nicholas Harrison was an opinion columnist prior to becoming a news reporter in the spring 2011 semester. Although news reporters customarily are not allowed to submit opinion columns for The Daily, the editors allowed Harrison to write a final column before his graduation.

Some of the issues I have covered during the past year may have left some people with the impression I didn’t think President David Boren was doing a good job. So, as I leave the paper, I wanted to take a moment to clear some of that up.

Due to my military service, I have had a few breaks in my education. I am a non-traditional student, and I am probably one of the few students on campus who remembers what it was like when Boren first took office in 1994.

The changes during the past 17 years have been truly remarkable. Boren has transformed not just this campus, but the entire public higher-education system in the state of Oklahoma. He helped define the role of a flagship institution where there previously had been very little distinction between OU and other regional institutions and community colleges — raising admissions standards, soliciting private gifts and endowments, working to improve the university’s academic reputation, and promoting research and creative activity. He’s had a truly profound impact.

Moreover, as the university slowly emerges from the economic downturn, it also becomes clear Boren’s leadership is what got this institution through recent years relatively unscathed. This campus has been spared the furloughs, tuition increases, mass layoffs, pay cuts and program eliminations institutions in states like Arizona and California have experienced.

However, there are many challenges facing higher education and the problems touched on in various articles published this year should not be misconstrued as Boren’s personal failings. These are issues public colleges and universities are grappling with across the country.

The costs of higher education continue to spiral as public colleges and universities struggle to compete with private institutions while suffering from state budget cuts. Non-traditional, minority and low-income students find it more and more difficult to gain access due to higher tuition and fee levels. Students graduating with a crushing burden of debt are finding diminishing returns on their investment due to stagnant wages in the job market. And, colleges and universities are struggling to deal with the effects corporate contracts and private gifts and endowments have on their institutional operations.

These are issues that are being discussed on every campus in the nation and, in most cases, students are taking the lead in those discussions. Every time I check out the stories on the National Student News Service, I find it absolutely amazing to see what our counterparts on other campuses are doing. So, I’m left wondering why those discussions aren’t going on here.

I could fault student government and point fingers at people, but I’m graduating and I’m not sure what that would accomplish. During the past year, I’ve tried to bring some of these issues into the campus’s collective consciousness. So, I will leave you with a challenge: Take the time to educate yourself about what’s going on in public higher education. Ask people the really tough questions. And, don’t be afraid to make someone mad.

Unlike faculty and staff, you’re only here on campus for a few years. You don’t have to worry about burning bridges. You’ll graduate and move on. However, the decisions being made here on campus are decisions that will have a profound impact on your future.