Though students have mature ideas, not all are mature enough to act on them.

Despite common perception that college students are lazy, self-centered and spoiled, many Nicholls students are very concerned about the hard issues, such as race, gender and sexuality.

Discrimination, preconceptions, perceptions, societal morals, cultural teachings and history play an important part in every day life of men and women, gay, straight and bisexual, black, white, Asian, Indian, Muslim, etc. Whether you’re getting a job, applying for school or deciding where to live, race, gender and sexuality all play a part in how you are treated and how you treat others.

The Gay-Straight Alliance and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are particularly concerned about these issues for obvious reasons. They recently co-hosted a debate on these very sensitive issues, proving that though students run a lot of what happens on campus, not all of them are mature enough to handle the adult world just yet.

Many questions were well-thought out and led to very informative, thoughtful debate on the issues, such as the misconceptions society has of welfare, whether Obama was elected because of race or politics, the taboo of interracial couples, work-place discrimination and the roles of women in society.

Other questions appeared to have very little to do with the hard issues, such as the definition of promiscuous and “lipstick lesbians.”

And finally, several questions raised too much debate, leading to arguing, interruptions and near-screaming. These questions involved the higher rate of elected cesarean sections and the use of the N-word. At times, panelists and audience members threatened to walk out of the debate, because they felt they were being personally attacked or ignored.

Much of the negative aspects of the debate could have been avoided if the emcees, charged with keeping panelists and audience members on track, leading the debate and keeping quiet at all other times. However, the emcees themselves interrupted panelists and audience members.

The debate did have good points. It proved that students are interested in discussing important issues in life and will find ways to do so if ways are not provided for them.

But it also proved that students still have a lot of growing to do.

In the future, we hope to see another debate like this, only more refined. Students do have good ideas; we just need a little help in putting them into action sometimes.