The End of the Petition
So, this week the faculty voted on the petition I brought forward (along with half of the graduating class who signed it). I discovered today, it was voted down unanimously at this week's faculty meeting. Thus, the awards will be announced as always during the graduation ceremony.
The reasons they chose to keep things as they are (as told to me by a faculty member) are as follows:
1) Some of the awards given (by families in honor of a deceased relative, etc.) stipulate that they are to be presented in this specific way.
2) Something else I forgot.
3) Given as the main reason: we are called to rejoice with those who rejoice rather than to respond in bitterness or resentment.
This feels like a huge blow. Honestly, knowing the faculty here, I didn't expect it to go through. But there were a few faculty who I really felt were on the same page with me when I talked to them, and seemed to have the same communal values and position on the awards issue. So I was really surprised, saddened, and disappointed that they did not support the petition. It is really hard that a value I hold with such centrality in my understanding of the Kingdom of God, the Gospel, and Christian communities would not even have one single supporter among the faculty here. I feel really alone right now. And disappointed.
The reasons they chose to keep things as they are (as told to me by a faculty member) are as follows:
1) Some of the awards given (by families in honor of a deceased relative, etc.) stipulate that they are to be presented in this specific way.
2) Something else I forgot.
3) Given as the main reason: we are called to rejoice with those who rejoice rather than to respond in bitterness or resentment.
This feels like a huge blow. Honestly, knowing the faculty here, I didn't expect it to go through. But there were a few faculty who I really felt were on the same page with me when I talked to them, and seemed to have the same communal values and position on the awards issue. So I was really surprised, saddened, and disappointed that they did not support the petition. It is really hard that a value I hold with such centrality in my understanding of the Kingdom of God, the Gospel, and Christian communities would not even have one single supporter among the faculty here. I feel really alone right now. And disappointed.
posted by bethany at 4:17 PM
1 Comments:
I haven't been by in awhile what with moving, changing jobs, and all that, but you continue to have interesting things on your blog so I'm glad I did.
I find the dilemma over awards very interesting. A question that occurred to me as I read you entries on the subject is, isn't ordination kind of award? I'm probably not seeing the nuance here, but aren't graduation, ordination, promotion to bishop or beyond and all that awards that then get celebrated? I'm a lay person not recognized for any particular level of service or education in the church, but you are. I get the idea that you're equating recognition of an achievement, especially recognition of an achievement that's considered by the faculty to be greater than that of another, to be equivalent to placing one person above another.
The reverse of that is when I am presented with an idea from an employee and have to shoot it down as non-viable. If it's taken as an attack on the employee's identity (or if it is an attack on the employee's identity) that's bad. It seems equivalent, but mirrored, to the bible quote you mention. But the idea is not the person and if that's clear, it's okay. Recognizing a paper as exceptional work doesn't mean you're a better person or author's of other papers are lesser people, but rather that the work you submitted is superior and adds to the total body of knowledge and thought in the church the most. Not submitting what could be the best and thereby sharing thoughts that could improve other's lives seems more selfish to me, like the whole "hide a light under a bushel" thing. More people will read a paper that's received an award, presumably, and they deserve to have the best available.
Maybe there's some aspect to this I'm just not grasping, but I'd like to know what it is if that's the case, and I promise not to give your response a blue ribbon. :)
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