Sunday, February 05, 2006
What Does It Take to Get Action?
Simon's Rock is in the midst of a slow-motion crisis, built of first one incident among the students, then another. It you weren't looking for pattern, it would be possible to miss it and lull yourself into believing that everything's okay.
But talk to most of the students at Simon's Rock about their personal lives, and you'll quickly realize that everything is not okay. Not at all.
Two weeks ago four Simon's Rock students went to the emergency room of the local hospital with acute alcohol and drug poisoning. The idea of someone dying from our refusal to come to grips with substance abuse on our campus doesn't seem at all far-fetched. And while less dire, issues of racism, sexism and elitism continue to plague our community.
It's time for us to start living up to our responsibility as educators--to lead by example, and to model the kind of behavior and engagement we want to see in our students.
Is that too much to ask?
This weekend I sent to the entire faculty and staff my proposal for a proactive approach to this many-headed problem: a required series of courses in social issues, offered to the students in small groups, each led by a pair of trained adult facilitators and a couple of older students as peer leaders.
I believe we should take the time and make the effort to explore the social issues that college students run smack up against every day of their lives--explore them intellectually, and also from the feeling place, hopefully developing enough trust within the group so that students feel comfortable expressing their true feelings, trying out new ideas, and remaining open to the possibility of growth.
Among the issues to be covered:
But talk to most of the students at Simon's Rock about their personal lives, and you'll quickly realize that everything is not okay. Not at all.
Two weeks ago four Simon's Rock students went to the emergency room of the local hospital with acute alcohol and drug poisoning. The idea of someone dying from our refusal to come to grips with substance abuse on our campus doesn't seem at all far-fetched. And while less dire, issues of racism, sexism and elitism continue to plague our community.
It's time for us to start living up to our responsibility as educators--to lead by example, and to model the kind of behavior and engagement we want to see in our students.
Is that too much to ask?
This weekend I sent to the entire faculty and staff my proposal for a proactive approach to this many-headed problem: a required series of courses in social issues, offered to the students in small groups, each led by a pair of trained adult facilitators and a couple of older students as peer leaders.
I believe we should take the time and make the effort to explore the social issues that college students run smack up against every day of their lives--explore them intellectually, and also from the feeling place, hopefully developing enough trust within the group so that students feel comfortable expressing their true feelings, trying out new ideas, and remaining open to the possibility of growth.
Among the issues to be covered:
- substance use and abuse (including alcohol and prescription drugs, as well as the usual recreational drugs);
- sexual harassment and date rape, as well as general insensitivity to, and ignorance of, basic sexual health and relationship etiquette;
- intolerance of difference, including racism, misogyny, elitism, and lack of respect for others' preferences, be they political, sexual, or religious;
- rampant cultural arrogance and unexamined privilege;
- and a general sense of apathy, malaise, stress over academic work, and depression--which compounds every issue above.
Comments:
<< Home
I had hoped that in the post Wayne Lo era something had changed. Stumbling across your post makes it clear it has not.
I drank for the first time my third week at SR- a third of a bottle of tequila in two minutes. I was 15, and I honestly didn't know any better. I stumbled with my friend to a party. She left with a boy who I suspect was more sober (I later noticed a marked tendency on his part to take drunken girls home). I returned to my room-- where I was having a singularly pleasant experience of the bedspins-- when my RA arrived. Conversation ensued. Unnerved by the distinct impression that she was hitting on me, I climbed out the window and headed toward the congregation of 50 or so students who were yakking it up at 2:00 am in front of the Cafeteria. I joined a conversation, said something I thought to be innocuous, but which sent a boy off screaming into the crowd. Noting my confusion someone turned to me and said: "Don't you know we're all tripping?"
My reason for relating this is only partially driven by nostalgia. Drug abuse (or experimentation) is endemic in the population Simon's Rock serves. However academically gifted the students are they are still adolescents, with all the attendent angst and lack of judgement that occurs when your frontal lobes are still in flux. Mix that with a high degree of freedom and the results can be ugly.
I think you are right to urge the school to confront these issues head-on, and I like your suggestions. Yet I wonder if a solution can be achieved without fundamentally changing the character of the college itself. What distinguished Simon's Rock for me was that it was _not_ a boarding school. It lured me in with promises of the adult freedoms and intellectual challenge I yearned for.
When I was a freshman we were made to attend a number of mandatory health lectures that covered drugs, sex, etc. ("You will find that at Simon's Rock being bisexual is trendy"). Doesn't this happen any more?
I would think that Simon's Rock, since it acts _in_loco_parentis_ much more that a University whose students are predominantly above 18, might have greater legal concerns. I believe the UAB was relieved of responsiblity in this suit: http://archives.cnn.com/2001/LAW/08/31/uab.lawsuit/index.html
but it does echo a situation which I *know* has arisen, and will arise again, at Simon's Rock.
I drank for the first time my third week at SR- a third of a bottle of tequila in two minutes. I was 15, and I honestly didn't know any better. I stumbled with my friend to a party. She left with a boy who I suspect was more sober (I later noticed a marked tendency on his part to take drunken girls home). I returned to my room-- where I was having a singularly pleasant experience of the bedspins-- when my RA arrived. Conversation ensued. Unnerved by the distinct impression that she was hitting on me, I climbed out the window and headed toward the congregation of 50 or so students who were yakking it up at 2:00 am in front of the Cafeteria. I joined a conversation, said something I thought to be innocuous, but which sent a boy off screaming into the crowd. Noting my confusion someone turned to me and said: "Don't you know we're all tripping?"
My reason for relating this is only partially driven by nostalgia. Drug abuse (or experimentation) is endemic in the population Simon's Rock serves. However academically gifted the students are they are still adolescents, with all the attendent angst and lack of judgement that occurs when your frontal lobes are still in flux. Mix that with a high degree of freedom and the results can be ugly.
I think you are right to urge the school to confront these issues head-on, and I like your suggestions. Yet I wonder if a solution can be achieved without fundamentally changing the character of the college itself. What distinguished Simon's Rock for me was that it was _not_ a boarding school. It lured me in with promises of the adult freedoms and intellectual challenge I yearned for.
When I was a freshman we were made to attend a number of mandatory health lectures that covered drugs, sex, etc. ("You will find that at Simon's Rock being bisexual is trendy"). Doesn't this happen any more?
I would think that Simon's Rock, since it acts _in_loco_parentis_ much more that a University whose students are predominantly above 18, might have greater legal concerns. I believe the UAB was relieved of responsiblity in this suit: http://archives.cnn.com/2001/LAW/08/31/uab.lawsuit/index.html
but it does echo a situation which I *know* has arisen, and will arise again, at Simon's Rock.
# posted by 
: 11:35 PM
: 11:35 PM
I see now that you graduated from Simon's Rock as well. Magna Cum Laude, no less, which means you were most likely blessed with a natural resilience which enabled you to excel despite the rampant drug use... or perhaps there were less drugs available. Somehow, though, I doubt that was true in 1978.
I'm curious as to your thoughts about how Simon's Rock's handling of student health, wellness and safety has or has not changed since you were a student.
I'm curious as to your thoughts about how Simon's Rock's handling of student health, wellness and safety has or has not changed since you were a student.
# posted by : 12:05 AM
: 12:05 AM
Hey Kate,
Thanks for writing! Did you get to Women’s Crossroads through the Simon’s Rock blog, PB&J? A student just interviewed me for PB&J, asking some of the same questions you’re asking, so you might be interested in checking that out too. It’s at https://blog.simons-rock.edu/pb/j/321#more
I also am concerned about not changing the character of the school, and I know experimentation is an important part of the student experience. That’s why I’m looking for small-group discussions that will allow us to develop trust in each other and be able to share openly and honestly, and hopefully be open to new perspectives. Another big part of the picture is continuing racial friction at SRC, and this is what I hope the “social issues education” program would also improve.
I'd be happy to continue discussing the possibilities for working through social issues without falling into the “boarding school approach,” which I agree with you is to be avoided at all costs!
Thanks for writing! Did you get to Women’s Crossroads through the Simon’s Rock blog, PB&J? A student just interviewed me for PB&J, asking some of the same questions you’re asking, so you might be interested in checking that out too. It’s at https://blog.simons-rock.edu/pb/j/321#more
I also am concerned about not changing the character of the school, and I know experimentation is an important part of the student experience. That’s why I’m looking for small-group discussions that will allow us to develop trust in each other and be able to share openly and honestly, and hopefully be open to new perspectives. Another big part of the picture is continuing racial friction at SRC, and this is what I hope the “social issues education” program would also improve.
I'd be happy to continue discussing the possibilities for working through social issues without falling into the “boarding school approach,” which I agree with you is to be avoided at all costs!
Sorry-- a bit of a lag before I checked back here. I'm in grad school and it's midterms- I won't do this justice since I've promised not to take too long of a "fun" break. Thank you for responding. It certainly wasn't my intention to get caught up in SRC goings on, but I found (find) myself compelled.
I didn't get to your post through PB&J. I will check out the link. Rather, I got to your post through a search for "Simon's Rock" and "sexual harrasment." I was trying to refresh my memory of the events surrounding the group of students who accused so many profs (13? 6?) of sexual harrasment. This occured a year or so after I graduated, so my knowledge was limited to hearsay and the NYT Ed. section blurb. My research was prompted by a posting on the SRC board at myspace.com by a woman naming known G.B. area rapists/harrassers- and a subsequent post in which she retracts a name.
During my time at SRC a group of student activists (some were later involved in the harrasment accusations) were very vocal and fairly powerful. While I agreed with many points on principle I was also wary of an attitude that existed that I characterized at the time as "wanting to shoot all the rednecks because they wanted to shoot all the blacks." This is a somewhat clumsy metaphor in retrospect, but I was not alone in my perceptions. Stan Mack, a Village Voice cartoonist whose son attended at the same time featured a Simon's Rocker in a strip that lampooned him as the son of upper-middle class white liberals who was "pretending to be homosexual so that he could know what it felt like to be oppressed."
I drag these examples into the discussion because they characterize SRC at the time: white guilt was a powerful force. It was an overwhelmingly white campus full of students who were full of good intentions but lacked any real knowledge to support those intentions. I was certainly one of them. Honest, open discussion was a such a potential powderkeg that there was a real dis-incentive for students to express themselves-- the social ramifications of could be serious (just as they can be in adult life). Moreover, since 90% (estimated) of the enrollment was white conversations generally consisted of a whole lot of white kids talking about racism. The manner in which these discussions occured was, IMHO, of limited value. Racial issues received lots of verbal attention, but discussions lacked multiple perspectives and there was certainly no meaningful action on the school level.
A great big dose of reading and _listening_ would have been a wonderful thing. You are right that trust and honesty are crucial. And.. I really ought to read more about SRC via PB&J, etc. before I formulate an opinion. But that will have to wait until the next regularly scheduled brain break.
Thanks for giving me a place to participate,
Kate
Post a Comment
I didn't get to your post through PB&J. I will check out the link. Rather, I got to your post through a search for "Simon's Rock" and "sexual harrasment." I was trying to refresh my memory of the events surrounding the group of students who accused so many profs (13? 6?) of sexual harrasment. This occured a year or so after I graduated, so my knowledge was limited to hearsay and the NYT Ed. section blurb. My research was prompted by a posting on the SRC board at myspace.com by a woman naming known G.B. area rapists/harrassers- and a subsequent post in which she retracts a name.
During my time at SRC a group of student activists (some were later involved in the harrasment accusations) were very vocal and fairly powerful. While I agreed with many points on principle I was also wary of an attitude that existed that I characterized at the time as "wanting to shoot all the rednecks because they wanted to shoot all the blacks." This is a somewhat clumsy metaphor in retrospect, but I was not alone in my perceptions. Stan Mack, a Village Voice cartoonist whose son attended at the same time featured a Simon's Rocker in a strip that lampooned him as the son of upper-middle class white liberals who was "pretending to be homosexual so that he could know what it felt like to be oppressed."
I drag these examples into the discussion because they characterize SRC at the time: white guilt was a powerful force. It was an overwhelmingly white campus full of students who were full of good intentions but lacked any real knowledge to support those intentions. I was certainly one of them. Honest, open discussion was a such a potential powderkeg that there was a real dis-incentive for students to express themselves-- the social ramifications of could be serious (just as they can be in adult life). Moreover, since 90% (estimated) of the enrollment was white conversations generally consisted of a whole lot of white kids talking about racism. The manner in which these discussions occured was, IMHO, of limited value. Racial issues received lots of verbal attention, but discussions lacked multiple perspectives and there was certainly no meaningful action on the school level.
A great big dose of reading and _listening_ would have been a wonderful thing. You are right that trust and honesty are crucial. And.. I really ought to read more about SRC via PB&J, etc. before I formulate an opinion. But that will have to wait until the next regularly scheduled brain break.
Thanks for giving me a place to participate,
Kate
# posted by : 11:02 PM
: 11:02 PM << Home
