Staff Editorial
Convocation. To Pepperdine students, this word conjures up the all too familiar image of sitting in the Fieldhouse on Wednesday mornings with the rest of the student body. Some people think of singing and listening to speakers, others think of reading the newspaper or staring off into space. The unifying factor is that no matter what a student associates with Convo, Convo means Wednesday mornings at 10 a.m.
This semester, the administration is forcing students to start thinking outside the Wednesday morning box. The Convocation office is only offering 12 credits for Wednesday Convos (counting only those that are offered at 10 a.m.), forcing students to attend two other Convos.
Fortunately, SGA is doing its job and speaking out on students’ behalf on this issue. SGA passed a resolution written by Senior Class President Ryan Breedyk asking the administration to either lower the Convo requirement to match the number of Wednesday Convos offered or offer double credits to make up the difference.
While the Graphic and SGA are frequently at odds with one another, we fully support this resolution. Wednesday mornings are specifically set aside for Convo, and likewise Convo requirements should be specifically designed to be fulfilled on Wednesday mornings.
This idea is not new. Until this semester, Pepperdine has always provided enough credits on Wednesday mornings to fulfill the requirement for the semester. If there weren’t 14 Wednesday Convos in a given semester, the school would offer double credit Convos to offer 14 credits on Wednesdays. There is no reason that philosophy should change now.
Programming Board Convocation Director Bethany Rogers said the Convo office decided not to offer double credit Convos because it wants to change the perception that the Convo requirement should be fulfilled by simply attending Wednesday Convocation. She said Convo is an opportunity for students to grow emotionally and spiritually and that students who are only willing to put forth the minimum effort and attend only Wednesday Convos should be content with a B+.
That argument is fundamentally flawed. Convo is an opportunity for growth for first semester freshmen. After one semester of Convo, students have already learned that drinking, premarital sex, racism and eating disorders are bad, but the lectures on these topics continue each semester using different faces and different anecdotes to convey the same message.
Even if a message is new and interesting and does provide an opportunity for growth, this still requires that students actually listen to the message. The Convo office is foolish if it believes that students attend Convo to learn and grow. To anyone in the crowd on a Wednesday morning, it is obvious that Convo is filled with sleepy disgruntled students who would rather be doing just about anything other than sitting in Convo. With this crowd, forcing students to seek out additional Convos is simply prolonging the misery.
In addition, the Convo office is flawed in its assessment that students who do not attend Convos outside of Wednesday mornings are lazy. Wednesday morning is the only time where absolutely no classes interfere. Students make their schedules around Wednesday Convocations, filling afternoons and evenings with work and internships. While it is true that there are many opportunities for Convocation offered outside of Wednesday mornings, it is often very difficult for students to attend at other times. Students who are not enrolled in a 251 or higher language class miss out on a large portion of Convo opportunities. Still more Convos are eliminated for students who have class from 10 to 12 on most days or students who have evening classes. The students who are punished by the lack of Wednesday Convo credit are ultimately those who are the busiest and the most involved on and off campus — not the laziest.
Forcing students to attend any of the smaller Convos is also a bad idea. If people truly want to attend non-Wednesday Convos for spiritual and emotional growth, they are still able to do so. Requiring the rest of the student body to attend fills these smaller rooms with students who have no desire to be there — a fact that is very apparent in this setting and is consequently demoralizing for speakers.
Rather than changing the number of Convocation credits offered on Wednesday mornings, the Convocation Office should consider changing the program to be more beneficial to students by putting on events students want to attend. No one benefits from filling rooms with apathetic students who are there simply out of concern for their grades. If speakers are truly interesting and beneficial, students will not need to be forced to attend. Until then, the administration and the Convo office should listen to SGA. Since students get class credit for Convo, it should operate like any other class and be held during its allotted time in the same location every week — Wednesday mornings at 10 a.m in the Fieldhouse.
11-18-2004