LSU is not as strong an academic institution as University …

Comment on WASC considers outside efforts ‘threatening’ to LSU’s autonomy by David Kendall, PhD.

LSU is not as strong an academic institution as University of California Riverside. If students want a good secular education, there are much better choices. They go to LSU looking for a Christian, Seventh-day Adventist education (or a backdoor feeder for Loma Linda University Med School).

On what do you base this assertion? I have taught at both LSU and UCR, and can say with some certainty that the strength of the education depends largely on the program or course. UCR certainly has more money (though less and less lately) and support resources, but LSU does much better with small class sizes and student access to professors in general. At UCR, I have taught classes of 75-150 students, while at LSU I teach 10-20. This allows for the potential for much more personal engagement, which educators and students alike will admit is a distinct advantage. LSU’s School of Education, School of Business and Management, and many individual departments (such as Music, where I teach) are well-regarded regionally. Former LSU President Geraty is revered all over Southern California as well. The success that our graduates enjoy in professional life and/or further education speaks for itself. Unfortunately, many will take this quality and regional respect as a sign of worldliness. We who teach at LSU consider the quality of our instruction as an issue of stewardship of the Lord’s resources; we already know what happened to the wicked and slothful servant who buried his talent.

Pax,

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University

Recent Comments by David Kendall, PhD

Adventist Review: Pastors Who Don’t Believe

The main point has always been concerning those who know that what they teach is not in harmony with stated and understood church teaching. And then simply ignore this position and feel at liberty to teach as they please.

The issue of “stated and understood church teaching” is not as cut-and-dry as we might like to think. I am a music professor, and I have several different editions of the Church Manual, Supplements, and other official church writings that mention morality in music and guidelines for its use. At one time, opera was firmly denounced as unfit for Adventist consumption. The church is now silent regarding that particular genre (though I admit that much of opera is terrible; many devout SDAs consider it wonderful without knowing its moral and intellectual content). Several editions of the Manual state that any music partaking of the jazz (and later the rock) idiom are not to be chosen by persons of true culture. Interestingly enough, the reason to avoid jazz and rock is due to its lack of “culture”, and not moral considerations.

As a music professor, am I to follow the stated stance of the church and refrain from any instruction making use of jazz idioms (including seventh and ninth chords that are part of non-jazz theory, syncopated rhythms, and improvisation)? I am not certain that the church as an institution is in a position to dictate what constitutes “true culture” in the first place. What does that mean? If I were to use those guidelines, I would not posses true culture, despite culture being my area of expertise.

Questions like these are why we “well reasoned individuals” may discredit claims and challenges made here or in any forum. This is generally due to the intellectual incoherence of many arguments found in such forums, like the strings of assumptions and generalizations in the post immediately above. Thumbing one’s nose, demanding payment, and teaching what one pleases, is not the conclusion (rational or not) that was made. If the argument is not rational, how then the conclusion?

Pax,

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University


La Sierra and Battle Creek College

Do the LSU students even study much about Ellen White and her beliefs, other than to belittle them? I’m asking, since I do not have any relatives who have attended LSU recently.

Hi Dr. Stone,

You seem to be implying that “the LSU students” are belittling Ellen White and her beliefs. What is your evidence of this, since you do not have relatives who have recently attended the institution? Have you been speaking to LSU students, or has someone told you what they are saying? If so, does your information indicate that “the LSU students,” which encompasses all of the students, are doing this? If not, we should be careful to avoid casual generalities.

Pax,

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University


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
@Ron Stone M.D.:

Dr. Stone,

Regarding intimidation, would you care to give some examples? And regarding the “conference office”, pastors are generally managed by their local conferences (i.e. Nevada-Utah, Arizona, Southern California) and not directly by the Union, unless someone can inform me of situations in which this is not the case.

Finally, regarding the conference “coming down” on pastors, would we not agree that it is the work of the conferences to regulate and control the messages put forth by pastors who are employed by them? After all, this is what we insist the conference should do with the faculty and curriculum at La Sierra University.

Pax,

David Kendall, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Music
La Sierra University