Hello all, I have generally refrained from dialogue here over the …

Comment on LSU student petition criticizes curriculum by David Kendall, PhD.

Hello all,

I have generally refrained from dialogue here over the past several months: One, doing so was providing few (not least myself) with not much benefit; Two, it has been a massive sink for time, now more fruitfully filled with caring for a growing family.

However, I heard about this old petition and thought I would mention a few things since I was there and involved.

I agree that the petition is from the 1998-99 school year, when I was a young, impressionable freshman at LSU. However, I am quite certain that the petition, with a purported 300+ signatories, did not represent a third of the student population. There were many more than just a thousand students then, unless I am very much mistaken.

There were two major issues during that term, as I recall. One was a dissatisfaction with the CORE curriculum (I did not take any of the CORE classes, except for CORE 101, the general introduction to LSU for freshmen, since I was in the honors program). Today, that basic curriculum is part of University Studies, and students take UNST courses in a number of broad categories. When I was a student at LSU, we could take classes in California literature, or on Opera, Comparative World Religions, and any number of other available offerings. My impression from taking and teaching such breadth courses at both LSU and in the University of California is that students generally see them as a barrier to their “real work”, meaning their particular degree track.

The other issue was, as has been stated consistently on this forum, a fear of a creeping liberalism/secularism at the university. This was a fear that I shared as an incoming freshmen from relatively more conservative Arizona, and reflects to a certain extent an unreasonable stigma attached to a geographic region (California). If the signatures on the petition ever come to light, I am sure you will see my name on it. I even attended a board of trustees meeting with Monte Bridges, Shawn Paris and Manasseh Nwaigwe. I was friends with Shawn Paris and had breakfast with him many mornings. It might be useful and instructive to track some of these people down and ask them what they think now (I know where to reach Shawn). Some of them, and I include myself, later came to accept and embrace a University that required students to expand their boundaries of knowledge, and question received or conventional wisdom to find out if it was solid. This is why I am proud to teach at that same University, which provided me a safe environment to learn and grow.

Let the example of this 11-12 year old petition serve as a reminder (or warning) to people who tend toward the un-thoughtful, that nothing is ever really erased on the internet. We should avoid writing anything that we would be ashamed to have our teenage children read a decade later.

Pax,

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University

David Kendall, PhD Also Commented

LSU student petition criticizes curriculum

With your “inside information” you should be able to list dozens of faculty, staff, and administrators who supportive of our efforts to confront this problem, right?

My question to you is why these faithful supporters at LSU, if they exist, have not stepped forward to confront the problems we are addressing here? Too busy? Don’t care? No backbone? Don’t “know” anything about it?

Hi Dr. Stone,

As in courts of law, the accuser is responsible for proving the guilt of the defending party. The defending party, in contrast, is not necessarily required to produce evidence to prove his or her innocence. They may choose to do so, but being accused, either directly or through association with an institution, does not require one to “step forward” to address “the problem we are addressing here.” It reminds me a of speech by former President George W. Bush in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, in which he stated that “you are either with us, or you are with the terrorists.” I was teaching in Taiwan at the time, and my attitude was that I was not with him, and neither was I a terrorist. I had the unfortunate experience of seeing the invasion on my 23rd birthday; not a celebratory event. I am using this anecdote to illustrate that a lack of response from “dozens” of faculty and staff on either side of the issue does not prove anything.

While it is oft implied that perceived silence in the face of accusation or opposition is an admission of guilt (from LSU administrators, to criminal defendants, to the entire world Muslim population), there may be many reasons not to respond. One is ignorance or unawareness of the issue. Another could be the sense that the issue is not important, or does not speak to pertinent topics. Still another may be an unwillingness to enter a debate in which some or all of the arguments do not possess intellectual coherence. Yet another reason, which is my reason for not entering into the substance of the debate (note that I have only posted on issues of fact, tone or fairness and not on the central argument), is that scholars may refuse to enter into a dialogue in which there is an arbitrary limitation on the terms of the debate.

In this case, by reading and dialoguing with a number of posters, I am led to believe that in this issue there are only two choices. I am unwilling to enter the quagmire of a forced binary opposition, when there may in fact be other alternatives and options. To enter into such a rigged system makes it impossible to remain intellectually and morally consistent. In the months before the Iraq War, I refused to enter a forced binary system: to be either pro-war or a terrorist. Neither label applied to me, and so I could not in good conscience enter a debate that would force me to choose one of them. This is just one example, and a personal one, not intended to speak for any other LSU faculty member, or administrator.

Pax,

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University


LSU student petition criticizes curriculum

Yes, the LSU faculty and administration are, in general, very liberal compared to most other SDA institutions. Regarding your “who knows what else” I wonder myself! Anyone have any “inside” information?

Hi again Dr. Stone,

On what in particular do you base your statement that the LSU faculty and administration are very liberal compared to other SDA institutions? A reading of the faculty positions papers and published research? Personal conversations with faculty members? Broad-based surveys of the student population? If these or other options have been pursued, I might place value on the assessment. But if the statement is based on assumptions, innuendo, or the projection of the impressions of a small percentage onto the whole, then it has less value. Regarding “inside information”, as I have stated elsewhere, I have been consistently on campus from 1998 (minus one year). However, I suspect that my “inside information” is not the kind of information you are looking for.

Pax,

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University


LSU student petition criticizes curriculum
@Shane Hilde:

Hi Shane,

As I suspected, I found my name on the petition. I can tell you that I had very little idea of what the petition was about at the time; at the least I had no particular dissatisfaction with the CORE curriculum (I thoroughly enjoyed the parallel honors curriculum). The concerns with secularism and pluralism that I mentioned earlier were prejudices I brought with me to the University; these were generally based on conversations I had with fellow students and friends who were disgruntled, rather than personal experiences of my own. This does not invalidate (or validate) the feelings of my friends and colleagues. However, feelings of a creeping secularism/pluralism/etc. are at all times highly subjective, being subject to times, places and changes in interpersonal relationships, worldviews and encounters with diverse populations (LSU is such a diverse population). Witness the progression of my own attitude through the intervening dozen years. I am as committed an Adventist as I was then; now I am just much better informed, educated and experienced. Keep in mind that the immaturity that many ascribe to our young students (due to the fact that there is a fear in allowing them to be exposed to “divergent” views) must exist in equal measure between those who are conservative and those who are progressive or liberal. Looking back on myself as an 18-year-old strongly conservative freshman at LSU, I freely admit my immaturity and impressionability. Remember, that knife cuts both ways.

Regarding your specific question about the CORE curriculum:

8. The total unwillingness of administration to evaluate the program or survey student opinion, and the suppression of dissenting views relating to C.O.R.E.

I strongly respect the writers of this petition, some of who were good friends. However, we have no particular evidence for or against the assertion that the administration was unwilling to evaluate CORE, survey student opinion, or suppress dissenting views. As is certainly the case regarding the current controversy, there are many who conflate a lack of immediate action with an unwillingness to change or revise based on valid criticisms. As I have discussed elsewhere, I or any of my colleagues would never immediately change our curricula if it became controversial; to do so would be irresponsible. Rather, we weigh the concerns (and there will always be competing concerns from many quarters), seeking the best balance and the best educational outcomes for the students in our care. Lots of students may dislike a class or general educational program for a number of reasons valid or invalid, and we educators will make the best, most thoughtful decisions possible. Precipitous or “knee-jerk” reactions are more appropriate in politics, and not in education.

So my response to your statement that this has been going on at LSU for a long time is that “this” (students expressing dislike or distaste for a course, a degree program, a professor or the administration) has probably been going ever since there was a University. I am sure I complained about any number of realities on campus, whether I understood them or not. I have had students complain about my own courses; generally that they are too difficult or include too much work. This is part and parcel of the university experience. I would strongly disagree that this “sentiment” is one that has not changed over the past 11 or 12 years at LSU, as I have spent all but one of those years on campus as either student or faculty. A number of sentiments have come and gone and different issues have come up. This is the way of all organizations, religious and otherwise.

Pax,

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University