Absorb chaos. Give back calm. Build confidence. - 9/21/2007
9/28/2007
I just came from a meeting of all the other deans, vice presidents, provost, etc. etc. and these words were imparted by our President, Donna Carroll. I’ve heard them before, as they’re actually something like her mantra, but this time they sunk in deeply. I have to tell you, she really is one of those inspirational leaders you love to work with in a university. To paraphrase one of my favorite lines from Ghostbusters: she has the tools; she has the talent. I’m starting my sixth year as dean here and I have to say, I always leave the room feeling better after spending time talking and thinking with her. Drop by DU some time and you’ll find she has an open door—then you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Well the pipes got connected and Parmer Hall opened in what was truly an inspiring ceremony. Now students are buzzing all over campus as we have indeed welcomed the largest class in our history. There’s tremendous energy everywhere, and I’m loving teaching my own Freshman Seminar as well.
At Welcome Weekend for our new students I sat with two parents at lunch who were distraught at the thought of saying goodbye to their son as they headed back to Iowa and left him here. They said he was shy and not very competitive and feared he would be too easily intimidated. I told them I understood; I’ve felt that ache in the pit of my stomach so many times as I’ve had kids to go college in Kansas and Pennsylvania. Because of this, I grew to hate—to despise—Harry Caray.
That’s because at O’Hare airport you get off the elevators at different levels designated by different Chicago sports teams and every time I’d dropped off my daughter to fly back to school I stepped on the elevator and it would somehow always be Cubs level and Harry would always be singing way too loud over the elevator’s speakers, “Let me hear you! A one, a two, a three… Take me out…” I wanted to strangle him. But then I remembered he was already dead and did I ever feel guilty.
So I said to those parents, “I hope you’re not Cub fans.” No, I didn’t say that actually. I said instead that I’d promise to do all I could to give their son a great experience, that we have faculty and staff and other students here who believe in something, and that we’re here to help each other, to challenge each other to get the best out of ourselves, but to do so in an environment that was civil, respectful, and genuinely a climate of friendship. Their boy would be fine here. We would come to know him, I said. I knew it was true. I said that if their son was lonely he could talk to me and that he’d surely make friends here. Still, I felt that old ache in my stomach because I knew how hard it was for them to let him go.
But then somehow, what happened a few hours later made my point better than I possibly could. Of course the wisdom came from a student.
Senior Tania Mann gave a wonderful reflection at the opening mass for new students and their parents, and I have to share some of it.
The more you progress, the more you realize that there really will always be someone who knows more or is better than you are, in whatever field. And that is just one reason why it is the search for joy and intrinsic truth in your own endeavors that does best to drive you forward. The idea of rank and competition is presented in today’s Gospel, with Jesus’ admonition to place yourself at a lower seat at the table, rather than assume a higher one. But the humility at the heart of His lesson is more than admitting that there are those better than yourself. If there’s anything I’ve learned in my Dominican education thus far, it is that knowledge need never be considered an obstacle to faith, but just the opposite. Study, to the Dominicans, is one in the same with prayer. Our studies bring us ever closer to the truth—the truth of ourselves, the truth of God’s creation, the truth behind our connections to each other. Discovering truth can definitely be a struggle. But it is a different type of struggle from that of competition. Timothy Radcliffe, former master of the Dominican order, says that “One wrestles so that the truth can win.”
She got it right. And remembering this, now, builds my confidence in the community we’v e assembled here. So all’s forgiven, Harry.
Go Cubs!
I just came from a meeting of all the other deans, vice presidents, provost, etc. etc. and these words were imparted by our President, Donna Carroll. I’ve heard them before, as they’re actually something like her mantra, but this time they sunk in deeply. I have to tell you, she really is one of those inspirational leaders you love to work with in a university. To paraphrase one of my favorite lines from Ghostbusters: she has the tools; she has the talent. I’m starting my sixth year as dean here and I have to say, I always leave the room feeling better after spending time talking and thinking with her. Drop by DU some time and you’ll find she has an open door—then you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Well the pipes got connected and Parmer Hall opened in what was truly an inspiring ceremony. Now students are buzzing all over campus as we have indeed welcomed the largest class in our history. There’s tremendous energy everywhere, and I’m loving teaching my own Freshman Seminar as well.
At Welcome Weekend for our new students I sat with two parents at lunch who were distraught at the thought of saying goodbye to their son as they headed back to Iowa and left him here. They said he was shy and not very competitive and feared he would be too easily intimidated. I told them I understood; I’ve felt that ache in the pit of my stomach so many times as I’ve had kids to go college in Kansas and Pennsylvania. Because of this, I grew to hate—to despise—Harry Caray.
That’s because at O’Hare airport you get off the elevators at different levels designated by different Chicago sports teams and every time I’d dropped off my daughter to fly back to school I stepped on the elevator and it would somehow always be Cubs level and Harry would always be singing way too loud over the elevator’s speakers, “Let me hear you! A one, a two, a three… Take me out…” I wanted to strangle him. But then I remembered he was already dead and did I ever feel guilty.
So I said to those parents, “I hope you’re not Cub fans.” No, I didn’t say that actually. I said instead that I’d promise to do all I could to give their son a great experience, that we have faculty and staff and other students here who believe in something, and that we’re here to help each other, to challenge each other to get the best out of ourselves, but to do so in an environment that was civil, respectful, and genuinely a climate of friendship. Their boy would be fine here. We would come to know him, I said. I knew it was true. I said that if their son was lonely he could talk to me and that he’d surely make friends here. Still, I felt that old ache in my stomach because I knew how hard it was for them to let him go.
But then somehow, what happened a few hours later made my point better than I possibly could. Of course the wisdom came from a student.
Senior Tania Mann gave a wonderful reflection at the opening mass for new students and their parents, and I have to share some of it.
The more you progress, the more you realize that there really will always be someone who knows more or is better than you are, in whatever field. And that is just one reason why it is the search for joy and intrinsic truth in your own endeavors that does best to drive you forward. The idea of rank and competition is presented in today’s Gospel, with Jesus’ admonition to place yourself at a lower seat at the table, rather than assume a higher one. But the humility at the heart of His lesson is more than admitting that there are those better than yourself. If there’s anything I’ve learned in my Dominican education thus far, it is that knowledge need never be considered an obstacle to faith, but just the opposite. Study, to the Dominicans, is one in the same with prayer. Our studies bring us ever closer to the truth—the truth of ourselves, the truth of God’s creation, the truth behind our connections to each other. Discovering truth can definitely be a struggle. But it is a different type of struggle from that of competition. Timothy Radcliffe, former master of the Dominican order, says that “One wrestles so that the truth can win.”
She got it right. And remembering this, now, builds my confidence in the community we’v e assembled here. So all’s forgiven, Harry.
Go Cubs!
