GLORIA SHELLER
Assistant Perspectives Editor
Students dread Wednesday morning Convo. Ten in the morning comes early after a night filled with studying and other activities. So why go?
According to the Web site, Pepperdine leaders promote the Convocation program as a way to build a sense of community among students. Convocation programs are “assemblies where students gather as a community to worship and learn more about how they can make a difference in the world.”
I beg to differ. Convo, especially Wednesday morning programs, fail to fulfill their mission. Rather than recognizing Pepperdine as students together as one unified body, happily chanting, “I am Pepperdine,” students are using their laptops in the desolate sections of Convo, listening to their iPods and then there are select few who are actually paying attention.
If students don’t get to the Wednesday morning programs, they are offered the opportunity to go to chapel. It isn’t that bad; I’ll admit it does bring foreign cultures to campus. Chapels are held in a variety of languages such as Italian and German. But it doesn’t create a sense community. It is just another source of resentment for students.
Pepperdine then tried to cover up all the religious-based Convos with the implementation of the Comm Connection this week. The problem is that out of 17 seminars, only four can be used for Convo credit. (Most of which are at random times in the middle of the day.) Three of the four have to do with building faith.
I don’t blame some students for not wanting to go to Convo. Most of the programs don’t apply to much of the student body. But students attend anyway because students receive a Convo grade that affects their GPAs. That’s no way to build a loving community.
If Pepperdine administrators want to build community, let’s hear from our students abroad or students involved in the Jump Start program. I think students would like to know what is going on around campus and overseas.
I don’t know one person who had something negative to say about hearing the choir sing at the Convo before winter break. I’ll bet some students didn’t even know Pepperdine had a choir, let alone a good one, before that Convocation. Not only was it good to get into the Christmas spirit, but also it was great to see friends up on stage performing.
Rather than spreading the Word, Convo speakers often just become a topic of conversation for Wednesday classes.
Junior Jessica Childress said what she would like to see happen with Convocation.
“Let’s bring speakers that have a more diverse range of topics and also topics that influence a variety of people; not just the Church of Christ population,” Childress said.
It isn’t a secret that not all students at Pepperdine are Christian. As a result of the partially Christian student body, Convo ought to be more student-oriented and less church oriented.
So why not go back Pepperdine? Go back to having our SGA president speak to the student body more often. It will improve student involvement if students actually know who our student body president is. (By the way, it is Leon Dixson)
Why not go back to having Wave of the Week? There are numerous people, like Senior Tionna Cunningham, who absolutely deserved recognition for serving as an inspirational RA last year and an all around outstanding Wave .
If it’s community and strength that the administration wants then they get the Pepperdine community (including all students) more involved. Don’t bring speakers like Kurt Salierno aka “Pastor to the Street” in to talk about his escapades while saving prostitutes, drug dealers and homosexuals. Yes, he grouped them together.
02-09-2006