In the midst of students registering for classes for second semester, seniors trying to figure out what they are going to do after May and midterms being completed, our country held an amazing election. Student interest and involvement was high as our students seemed to understand that THIS election was different. For many of them this was their first presidential election and thanks to the expanded use of technology for making people aware of the importance of each vote, every student I spoke with either had already voted or were planning on voting on election day. There were vans running every half hour from Alliot taking our students to local voting places and those vans seemed quite busy all day. After getting home from the Student Association meeting around 8:30, I turned on my tv to watch the results. Much like a couple of events in my lifetime, I will always remember where I was when Keith Olbermann announced exactly at 11:00 that Barack Obama was the President-Elect of the United States of America. I had talked with Moise St. Louis and three of our multi-cultural students in the cafeteria at lunchtime and, as always, was fascinated by their perspective on our election. Moise does such a great job of providing all of our students an opportunity to dialogue about every conceivable topic.
I had a telephone call last yesterday afternoon from Jack Bates. Jack graduated in May and is someone who was active in LEAP (our Christian retreat program on campus), a psychology major and someone who had two experiences studying abroad. Jack told me that he had spent the last ten days working in the South for the election of Barack Obama. As he recounted his experiences of being a young, white, male knocking on doors in very rural and very poor parts of two different southern states I was struck with the difference in our generations. For the current generation - they understand the Civil Rights movement from books, videos and research. For my generation - we understand the Civil Rights movement from our own unique experiences. The Ku Klux Klan blew up school buses in Pontiac, Michigan to prevent the implementation of a court order that had found the school district where I worked and lived, guilty of de-facto segregation. Black students were bussed from their homes across town to white schools but white students were NEVER bussed into black schools. Some of my students were killed during this time as racial tensions boiled over into the schools from the community. I shared some of this with Jack as we spoke last night. HIS reactions to the Obama victory and to his experiences of finding southern blacks being astonished that young, white, men would be working for Barack Obama's campaign were tempered as I shared MY generation's experience. It was quite a conversation.
One of the challenging questions that has arisen from this election was prompted by another former student who called me over a month ago to tell me that he and his partner were getting married in San Francisco because they were fearful that Proposition 8, which would make same-sex marriage illegal would pass. As I have listened to the details of this recent election results, I am confused at how 70% of the African-Americans who voted FOR Obama and 53% of the Latinos who voted FOR Obama in California and who by that vote moved the Civil Rights Movement ahead by quantum leaps could also vote to deny gay people the right to marry. I fully understand that marriage is a religious ceremony and that many states now provide for "civil" and legal rights but this whole hierarchy of minority oppression simply confuses me and challenges all of us to engage in a good deal of critical thought.....
Dave Kells is one of the three personal counselors in our Student Resource Center. Along with Linda Hollingdale (a friend and colleague for 27 years), and Julia Wick, a very warm and caring professional, David provides personal counseling services for our students. David is also our "counselor in residence" which is a relatively new program on college campuses. I first met David when he was a freshman here :) Last night I joined Patrick Gallivan (Interim Vice-President for Institutional Advancement) and Jen Niebling (head coach for women'ts basketball and awesome person :) ) at Yankee Lanes for bowling with Kells. This is a program that Davis started a couple of years ago. Last night there were 50 - yes, 50 students who hopped on a bus at the College and traveled the few miles to the local bowling lanes. As they poured into the place pizzas and pitchers of soda appeared and they took over ten bowling lanes. It was amazing to see all of these young college students, men and women, mostly first years taking part in this every other Thursday event organized and led by Kelvis which is the name on David's bowling shirt. They were all laughing, dancing to the music, participating in David's "contests" and bowling........ What an amazing time. Kudos to David and to Pat and Jen for their also being there. This was my first visit but will not be my last. I did bowl one game (I did score over 100) and Jen beat Pat and me. John Carvellas and Ray Patterson have reportedly also become members of this group and while they were not there last night and while David WILL give them some grief for NOT being there, this activity, supported by a $5 contribution from each student AND generous support from Grace Kelly's Student Activities Office was great to see and to be a part of. I don't have first year students in my classes as I teach all upper-level psychology courses so this will give me an additional opportunity to get to know more of our students.......
My classes continue to be great; we have only 9 T/Th classes left in this semester. Sports Psychology and Theories of Counseling were both challenging and so full of energy and student learning on Thursday that I commented to each class that this IS why I love to teach. Watching that "light go on" keeps them, and me, coming back time and time again to this amazing profession. Alex Canning is a senior in Sports Psych and he stopped by my office after class. He is an Education major who wants to teach. I have seen him do two presentations in class and he is good - he will be a credit to SMC when he becomes an educator. He is the one who commented to me that MY reaction when I DO see that "light go on" in my students is what excites him about teaching.
As always, take care, be well, remember our troops in your thoughts and prayers and thanksto those of you who continue to read my blog. Thanks to the Dad whose daughter is on our swim team and who agrees with me about the great qualities of Jim Donoghue and Drew Milliken. Thanks to Chris from the SA who reminds me that even students read my blog......
Dave
