The roar of student voices echoed through the International Ballroom as more and more students filtered in and took their seats for the University of Idaho Greek Week State of the Union Address.
Nearly 700 students listened to Corey Ciocchetti, a business ethics and legal studies professor at the University of Denver, encourage them to live an authentic life by focusing on things that have the capacity to bring them happiness.
“We just chase and chase and chase,” Ciocchetti said of money and what money can buy. “It doesn”t have the capacity to make you happy.”
Ciocchetti asked attendants to remember what they wanted in life and the kind of person they wanted to marry when they were 12 years old. To students who settled for less, he asked them to think about why.
Irish Martos | Argonaut
Keynote speaker Corey Ciocchetti presents at the Greek Week State of the Union address Tuesday in the International Ballroom at the Bruce Pitman Center.
“The margin for error in life is so incredibly small,” Ciocchetti said.
Instead of spending time at parties and using drugs and alcohol, Ciocchetti said to spend time on things that matter, things that can set you apart from every other graduate trying to procure a job.
“How much further ahead could you be?” Ciocchetti said. “You”re all trying to swim toward this fulfilling career.”
At the beginning of his speech, Ciocchetti described some of the problems of the world – high unemployment, the number of deaths caused by drunk driving, health insurance, to name a few.
He played a clip from the movie “Any Given Sunday,” in which the coach talked about life in terms of gaining inches.
He said you can”t stop sexual assault, drunk driving or cheating, but Ciocchetti asked if students could stop one and then another.
“That”s the stuff you”ll remember,” he said. “You won”t remember the touchdowns, you”ll remember the inches.”
Ciocchetti said he once advised a sorority and none of the members wanted to judge each other or intervene when a member wasn”t on the right track.
“I would rather you come to me with real problems than be this lukewarm leader,” he said.
He said friends must always judge friends, but with love and compassion. He said everyone is a role model for someone else.
“What responsibility do you have to the freshman that walk into this place?” he said.
Ciocchetti said he thinks people are too easily offended and people should learn to distinguish between malicious and non-malicious comments before becoming offended.
“The whole point of college, to me, is learning how to disagree with respect,” Ciocchetti said.
He said in an argument, no one is 100 percent right or wrong – if there”s a broken relationship, both parties helped break it.
For undergraduate college students, he said to be selfish and focus on the basics.
“How will you ever report accounting fraud to your boss? You can”t even get enough sleep,” he said.
Ultimately, he said people do what they do for the same goal – happiness.
“Every time you act unethically, you act irrationally toward the goal of your life,” Ciocchetti said.
He said to eliminate the negative and focus on friendship, compassion and character.
“I don”t care what you chose to do with your life,” he said. “As long as you chose to do it with character and integrity.”
Sophomore Kappa Delta member Maddie Dahlquist said she appreciated how Ciocchetti talked about removing sources of negativity from their lives.
“I know a lot of college kids are unhappy,” Dahlquist said. “It will help us (the Greek community) work as a team. It”s a lot of work to do that.”
Ciocchetti said he knew some of the changes he advocated made students uncomfortable, but that he hoped they realize his advice came from his heart.
“I know I”m going to try at least,” said Brandi Billing, a sophomore Kappa Delta member. “Sometimes it”s hard to put it into practice.”
Rory Butcher, a freshman Beta Theta Pi member, said he came to the speech because his house it trying to be more involved in events on campus.
“I think it”s a call to action for the Greek system,” Butcher said. “I hope people realize being here is about more than what you do on the weekends.”
Katelyn Hilsenbeck can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Katelyn_mh