Letter to the Editor: Senior reflects on Student Affairs

Much has been said this academic year about the Office of Student Affairs. Given the recent events, namely the censure of Matthew Brennan, I feel obliged to share my own views on the matter.Although my academic experience has provided me with an education that reflects the liberal arts and Catholic character of the school, my experience in Student Affairs has brought one disappointment after another in this regard. From being a Resident Assistant for two years, involved in student government for almost four and currently serving as the student body Vice President for academic affairs, I have had the misfortune of having a front row view of how the Office of Student Affairs operates.It was not until the censure of a student government senator recently,after he refused to attend student leadership training on grounds that messagesconveyed during trainingwere at odds with his faith as a Catholic, that I realized how problematic the philosophy of the Office of Student Affairs really is. As an observant Catholic, I was wondering how, at a Catholic college, a Catholic student could not be taken seriously for objecting to school-sponsored activities he considered to beinconsistent with Catholic teaching and practice. Back in the fall a letter appearedin Le Provocateurin which my colleague Leslie Higgins accurately and poignantly exposed the ridiculous ordeal that student leaders had been made to endure during the summer. The training sessions, he rightly said, not only failed to make us better leaders, but made us worse; the way in which many social and moral issues were approached undermines the values of the liberal arts, and, I dare say, the Christian faith. In the end, Higgins concluded that student leadership camp is "emblematic of the bureaucratic philosophy of the Offices of Student Affairs. Indeed! Together with Higgins I would argue this sort of politically correct and multicultural approach inhibits the critical thinking capacity ofour student leaders.

As our own Fr. Barry Bercier, A.A., points out in his book The Skies of Babylon, the theory behind the training Student Affairs "professionals" receive is one rooted in the social sciences which views the human person as being in psychological flux, a bundle of feelings that need to be controlled. To the contrary,aliberal arts education recognizes that human beings have natural potential, that our souls need formation and cultivation, and that given such instruction we free ourselves from ignorance and learn what it means to be human and begin a journey toward achieving that potential.

The censure of and attempt to remove Matthew Brennan were the consequence of the competing,"value-free" Student Affairsphilosophy more becoming of a state or secular school. It appears that many Student Affairs professionals aresimply that, professionals-- steeped intraining rarely consistent with the sort of liberal education given at Assumption. As such, theirformal approach to just about every situation possesses all the characteristics of bureaucracy: it is impersonal, controlling, and, yes, quite oftenpunitive. At no other time during my tenure here has this become more manifestly evident than during the shameful events that took place this semester. We witnessed just how fundamentally incompatiblethis Student Affairsideology is with the values of the liberal arts and Catholic identity of the College. Indeed, just by doing what they were trained to do, these Student Affairs professionals have demonstratedtheir incompatibility more obviously, more profoundly, and indeed more convincingly than any letter written by Leslie or I could ever hope to do.

Matthew Brennan refused to go to leadership training on the grounds that messages being sent through training sessions were fundamentally at odds with the Catholic faith. Some of my fellow student government officers (who have achieved the status of "trained" leaders) put forth the motion to censure and remove Brennan.

Subsequently, we saw no effort on the part of the Student Affairs "professionals" to stop my colleagues, thereby implicitly, if not explicitly, showing their support for the motion. Catholic teaching states that one must follow his or her conscience when approaching matters of fundamental importance, even if that means a disregard for policy or law. Principle always trumps policy. The value-free approachof Student Affairs recognizes no such theory. For them, imposition of policy always trumps any other consideration, no matter how substantial. How utterly disturbing it is that, on the one hand,we can impose such inane, such pointless and such dehumanizing training sessionswhile, on the other hand,we refuse to provide protection for students to practice their faith freely and conscientiously.

The value-free approach and skewed view of the human person just discussed shows itself in student leader training sessions such as the "multicultural competency" one,in which we were taught the manifold ways in which minorities have beenthe objects of discriminationthroughout history and the ways in which racism persists today. Arguably valid points.Butfrom there, wewere ledtoinfer that all minorities are victims because they endure this unjust treatment.A problem arises when this status of "victim" becomes the point from which we speak out against racism. Thisapproach divideshumanity into two groups:the oppressors and the oppressed, and smacks of Marxism. TheCatholic traditionlooks at this issue quite differently. The Church teachesthat human beings possess an innate dignity not rooted in "victim" status arising from an environment of, for example, "white privilege," butratherin one's status as a son or daughter of God, made in the divine image.The education provided by a Catholic liberal arts college like Assumption should be sufficient to nurture a love of neighbor that isn't grounded in the cultural Marxism one might "learn" (absorb) in 20 minute "competency"sessions.Theselessons do notinvoke critical thinking:they aremerely tools Student Affairs uses toincite guilt in those"oppressors" they apparently find "incompetent" or "unenlightened."