Aren’t We Forgetting Someone?
There’s been a lot of chatter about the proposed merger of Meadville/Lombard Theological School and Starr King School for the Ministry (see the proposal itself, the report on its demise, and commentary by UUEnforcer, Adam Tierny-Eliot, the Lively Tradition, and ChaliceChick). There’s also been writings about the “non-UU” seminaries and how they all fit into the mix. There’s been lots of discussion over how the UU ministry should be shaped, and the mission of the denomination and our churches.
But I haven’t seen anything about how all of this effects the students.
Remember them? Not the in-the-future-tuition-payers, not the alumni, but the current students. The ones who expect to graduate this year, next year, soon, and go out into the world of trying to make a living at this ministry thing (under crushing amounts of student loan debt) - shouldn’t they have some kind of voice in what’s happening, or not happening?
As the spouse of one of them, this irks me. Just as much as a year ago, watching him, as student body president, beg the administration on a weekly basis to LISTEN to the students, to consider how the loss of faculty and classes would change the current programs, to PAY ATTENTION to the needs of the community.
How are the current, limping, programs serving the students they have right now? How’s morale, right now?
What’s missing from these programs, right now? Do either of them, or any of the other seminaries, teach courses on, say, capital fundraising, non-profit administration, staff administration, budgeting, or any number of other very practical things a minister is expected to know how to do when they get into a congregation or community ministry?
What are these programs teaching well, right now? What’s working, right now?
How about this year’s incoming class? What potential do they have to offer the UU movement, and are the seminary programs equipped to maximize that potential?
Do the students exist in order to pay tuition, to perpetuate the institution, or are the institutions truly committed to serving the students, right now?
Comment by Chalicechick
August 3, 2006 @ 4:35 pm
Well, three of the people to write about the issue have been ministers, and then there’s me. Everybody else is quite a few years out of seminary, and I’ve never been.
I know all three ministers and all three live hundreds of miles from either school. I know I do.
So I’m not sure how to answer questions like:
“How are the current, limping, programs serving the students they have right now? How’s morale, right now?”
Indeed, I don’t think such questions are mine to answer. You certainly imply answers, but I don’t know for myself, so it would be weird for me to write about that.
I don’t think anyone is ignoring the students’ perspective, it’s just that none of us have it.
If a student wants to write about that, great. I, for one, will read it. That perspective is valuable. If none of the students feel comfortable doing so, that’s understandable, too.
But I don’t think the criticism that we’re irking you by ignoring their point of view is fair. Your very questions imply knowledge of things that we have no way of knowing.
CC