Amidst the uncertainty surrounding Georgetown Day this year, it’s a relief to hear that the show will go on.

While it’s disappointing that the holiday won’t be as extravagant as it has been in the past, we must remember that, ultimately, students make Georgetown Day the celebration we’ve come to know and love.

Students have to take initiative and make sure that such emblematic events take place and meet our expectations. Students sometimes tend to be reluctant to take on volunteer jobs that don’t have a high payoff for the individual, but we can’t simply trust that these events will happen of their own accord or because they have in the past. Last year, the number of student volunteers for Georgetown Day fell by approximately half, and of the 206 volunteers, 45 did not report to their shifts. Events like the Spring Concert, Senior Dis-Orientation and Georgetown Day happen because others put in extensive time and effort to organize them through official university organizations. Georgetown Day, too, should have its own institutional home on campus to help facilitate efficient student involvement in the planning of the event.

Thankfully, we still have a little time to keep the tradition alive. Newly inaugurated Georgetown University Student Association executives Clara Gustafson (SFS ’13) and Vail Kohnert-Yount (SFS’13) recently called for students to apply for the Georgetown Day planning committee. For Georgetown Day to continue, students must step up and apply before tomorrow’s deadline, and we as an entire student body must seize the moment to ensure that our vision of Georgetown Day can be met as closely as possible.

Still, we can take comfort in the fact that despite the loss of inflatables and the university-sponsored beer garden, the culture of the day can continue. In recent years, we have seen the event develop organically into a unique celebration of the student community. The camaraderie of the afternoon will carry on no matter what.

We’ll have Georgetown Day regardless of what the university provides or how delayed the planning process is. But this setback should serve as a wake-up call: We can no longer wait to be invited to plan events or expect others to do it for us.