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[Editorial for the CTS Prophet, May 2, 2007]
There Are No Children Here Anymore
It struck me this past week, after SpringFest and Chris and Mariah’s wedding, two events at which we were treated to such a rare sight in our buildings:
Children.
Laughing,
playing,
eating,
running.
Talking in church.
Creating ‘blessed disruption.’
Such a rare sight in our buildings.
Such a rare sound.
There are no children here anymore.
Oh, occasionally, someone will bring a child to campus:
Perhaps daycare fell through.
Perhaps they’re on their way to other errands.
But if a child comes to visit us,
(since they are only visiting),
With whom shall they play?
After all, there are no children here anymore.
There are no families here anymore.
Oh, occasionally they come to visit:
Spouses drop in, partners join us for lunch.
But if a family comes to visit,
With whom shall they speak?
After all, we seminary types get boring all to ourselves,
Talking our seminary talk.
So they stay a few awkward moments
Out of place. For now.
No place for the mothers to gather
No place for families to find support
No place, really.
Call us a Seminary perhaps, but not a community:
There are no children here anymore.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It has now been one year since that last remaining student housing at CTS was closed. This has had a tremendous, mostly negative impact on our community, which we don’t really take time to talk about. This next year, we will begin to understand what the absence of housing in an expensive urban neighborhood means for admissions and student accep-tance rates.
Seminary is a sacrifice of time and energy, particularly for students with families. This year, students have been torn even further between seminary life and family life. This is perhaps most true for our international students with families, particularly for families that don’t have readily available com-munities to join and help them to adjust to life in the U.S.
There are no stated plans to secure housing for students in the immediate future. What will this mean for us two years from now? Ten years from now?
Administration has started talking about using the 5th floor suite, a cluster of offices which was leased to the University until this year, as a ‘Student Services’ Suite. I hope that in this space, there will be a place for families and children to gather; perhaps a room set aside for an informal daycare collective such as happened at McGiffert and continues in other seminar-ies in our neighborhood. I also hope that there will be a place for commuter students to rest between classes, as well as to feel connected to the wider community. It would also be wonderful to give space there to the international students’ language program, to move them up to a place of honor on our campus, rather than the most inhospitable room in our building. This wouldn’t fix everything, but it would be a small step in the right direction.
Most of all, I want CTS to be a place where everyone can truly belong, a place everyone can call ‘home.’
Le Anne Clausen, Editor
Monday, April 30, 2007
Question, Teach, Transform?
[Editorial for the CTS Prophet, reflecting on the seminary's slogan]
If I question, will you teach?
Will I be transformed?
Will you?
What if I question your teaching?
What if you teach me to question?
What if I teach you?
What if you question me?
What if I transform you and
you transform me?
What if I transform your teaching?
What if you transform my questioning?
How far does transformation go?
Is it only out there, or in here also?
In what direction shall we be transformed?
Will it really be for the better?
Could it go the other way?
What can’t be questioned?
Where can’t it be questioned?
What can’t be taught?
Why not?
What resists transformation?
Where does the boundary lie?
Where does the boundary lie?
If I question, will you teach?
Will I be transformed?
Will you?
What if I question your teaching?
What if you teach me to question?
What if I teach you?
What if you question me?
What if I transform you and
you transform me?
What if I transform your teaching?
What if you transform my questioning?
How far does transformation go?
Is it only out there, or in here also?
In what direction shall we be transformed?
Will it really be for the better?
Could it go the other way?
What can’t be questioned?
Where can’t it be questioned?
What can’t be taught?
Why not?
What resists transformation?
Where does the boundary lie?
Where does the boundary lie?
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Prevent Tragedy, Act in Love
Editorial for the Hyde Park Seminarian, 4/25/07
“There are so many angry people here, [Virginia Tech] could happen to us on this campus.”
These were the words I heard a week ago Monday, while delivering the Seminarian to one of the many campuses here in Hyde Park. They were words that haunted me, because I knew from my own observations that they had a ring of truth. This timely street prophet continued: “Somebody doesn’t get the assignment they wanted, or there’s a problem with a professor or administrator, or they get lost in the bureaucracy…” Indeed, there are many situations of human brokenness that could lead a troubled person to commit acts such as this.
There’s a lot of ways to look at how students are vulnerable in the seminary setting. We are often separated from our families, from our home congregations and communities. In such a large city, finding help for the things that trouble us can be daunting, and expensive. We may not have good support services at our seminaries, or, our seminaries may not feel like safe places to talk about these things. Seminaries themselves are not always the first places we will find healthy, functional, and loving communities that do not cause undue harm to persons. Where the foundations of our faith meet realities of finance, grades, or housing, unjust policies, we can become shaken and vulnerable.
Sometimes, the violence doesn’t turn outward, but inward. Recently, the LSTC student government began to advocate for a ‘suicide policy’ that would guarantee students be treated pastorally and given appropriate health care, rather than be subject to punishment by seminary administration. According to Illinois Equip for Equality, actions such as eviction from student housing and expulsion from an educational program due to mental health conditions are illegal under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (www.equipforequality.org).
There have been some attempts in the media to characterize the student who committed the massacre as a monster, or to demonize him for his mental illness. I don’t believe these statements are helpful. There have also been opinions that perhaps more students or academic personnel should carry weapons, to act more quickly when something like this happens. I think this is only a disaster waiting to happen, as quickly as a moment of heated debate or a little alcohol.
What I do believe is that this is a situation that did not have to happen. Family, classmates, and university and medical personnel all knew this person was troubled. Rather than increasing alienation, greater interventions could have been made, in a loving and supportive manner, that may have prevented such a tragic outcome. Sometimes I think we all want to ‘pass the buck’ because it’s more convenient or comfortable to do so, but are the consequences worth it? Is closing our eyes the mandate for people of faith? It is true that some tragedies we cannot prevent, but that does not release us from doing what we are able.
Finally, safeseminaries.org is a website created, and still being created, for seminary students who feel that they are having unusual difficulties during their theological education. If you have questions, or have resources to contribute that you feel are important, you can visit the website, or contact info@safeseminaries.org.
Pray for the families and communities that have lost so much this week. Act in love and concern for one another. Speak up, wherever you feel most able to do so.
Peace,
Le Anne
“There are so many angry people here, [Virginia Tech] could happen to us on this campus.”
These were the words I heard a week ago Monday, while delivering the Seminarian to one of the many campuses here in Hyde Park. They were words that haunted me, because I knew from my own observations that they had a ring of truth. This timely street prophet continued: “Somebody doesn’t get the assignment they wanted, or there’s a problem with a professor or administrator, or they get lost in the bureaucracy…” Indeed, there are many situations of human brokenness that could lead a troubled person to commit acts such as this.
There’s a lot of ways to look at how students are vulnerable in the seminary setting. We are often separated from our families, from our home congregations and communities. In such a large city, finding help for the things that trouble us can be daunting, and expensive. We may not have good support services at our seminaries, or, our seminaries may not feel like safe places to talk about these things. Seminaries themselves are not always the first places we will find healthy, functional, and loving communities that do not cause undue harm to persons. Where the foundations of our faith meet realities of finance, grades, or housing, unjust policies, we can become shaken and vulnerable.
Sometimes, the violence doesn’t turn outward, but inward. Recently, the LSTC student government began to advocate for a ‘suicide policy’ that would guarantee students be treated pastorally and given appropriate health care, rather than be subject to punishment by seminary administration. According to Illinois Equip for Equality, actions such as eviction from student housing and expulsion from an educational program due to mental health conditions are illegal under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (www.equipforequality.org).
There have been some attempts in the media to characterize the student who committed the massacre as a monster, or to demonize him for his mental illness. I don’t believe these statements are helpful. There have also been opinions that perhaps more students or academic personnel should carry weapons, to act more quickly when something like this happens. I think this is only a disaster waiting to happen, as quickly as a moment of heated debate or a little alcohol.
What I do believe is that this is a situation that did not have to happen. Family, classmates, and university and medical personnel all knew this person was troubled. Rather than increasing alienation, greater interventions could have been made, in a loving and supportive manner, that may have prevented such a tragic outcome. Sometimes I think we all want to ‘pass the buck’ because it’s more convenient or comfortable to do so, but are the consequences worth it? Is closing our eyes the mandate for people of faith? It is true that some tragedies we cannot prevent, but that does not release us from doing what we are able.
Finally, safeseminaries.org is a website created, and still being created, for seminary students who feel that they are having unusual difficulties during their theological education. If you have questions, or have resources to contribute that you feel are important, you can visit the website, or contact info@safeseminaries.org.
Pray for the families and communities that have lost so much this week. Act in love and concern for one another. Speak up, wherever you feel most able to do so.
Peace,
Le Anne
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