In addition to Humanities 111 with Sonia Sorrell the convocation requirement is the great equalizer among Seaver students. Few can petition their way out of the half-credit addition to each semester’s schedule and many see it as nothing more than a chore or a box to check each week.
Convocation has noticeably improved this year as the Convocation office seems to be focused on finding speakers who relate well to students and whose messages resonate with our own life situations. Wednesday morning speakers have consistently reached into the audience to connect with students. The program has also encouraged club convos some led by students and offered credit for trips like “God in the Wilderness.” It is clear that the Convocation office is seeking to provide meaningful material for students.
We applaud this effort but we see even greater possibilities for the program.
We see a great potential for the convocation program to generate meaningful dialogue among students. We also see potential for the program to grow faculty-student relationships. We don’t want to view convocation as a chore; rather we would like convo to be something we look forward to attending a place where we fellowship and learn with friends and are challenged to reconsider our assumptions and areas of complacency.
The convocation events that students value the most are those that are personal and thought-provoking. We tend to discard lofty messages that fail to deal with the gritty questions of doubt anger and fear. The University encourages students to question and seek truth so we must be allowed to address these questions in spiritual settings in the quest for spiritual truth. When Oz Guinness spoke last year at The Veritas Forum he tackled some challenging student questions regarding subjects like the problem of evil in the creation of a purportedly good God. Students long for speakers who will not shy away from some of the rougher areas of faith.
Sometimes the problem with Wednesday chapel speakers who share their stories of spiritual turnaround is that they are interpreted as having been brought in to support a simple message of just trusting Jesus to improve your life. We are not interested in speeches that seem contrived to fit a pretty Pepperdine mold of perpetual cheerfulness. While these speakers may actually have stories that would encourage the student body they lack personal connection by which to communicate this. Admittedly this personal connection is difficult to establish between a speaker on a podium and 2000 students to whom he or she is a stranger to in the Fieldhouse.
In solution to this we encourage the Convocation office to look for speakers within the Pepperdine family and to support club convos even more strongly.
We know that many of our professors have had inspiring life experiences outside of the classroom and we want to hear about those. Students already have relationships of trust and respect with their favorite professors so they would relish the opportunity to learn from them about issues of faith and struggle that may not fit well into class lectures. In the past professors have hosted convocation events about relationships with parents dating their favorite works of spiritual literature and world events. These allow students to use their professors as resources for real-life knowledge outside of the classroom.
Professors also have the opportunity to improve Wednesday chapel just by attending it. If students saw their professors at chapel and could discuss the message with them afterward we could open up a whole new avenue of conversation between faculty and students. If faculty thinks that Wednesday chapel is worth attending maybe students will too.
We would like to see professors host more club convos as well. This gives students the opportunity to get to know their profs in a more casual personal setting and provides a conversation topic that will challenge both the students and professors. Whether this topic is strictly about faith or explores an intellectual question or a personal growth issue the discussion that makes up a club convo will facilitate students and faculty growing together in their exploration of these grand questions of life.
Convocation is not a chore if it is involved in building relationships.
In addition to growing existing relationships between students and their teachers faculty-led club convos will provide opportunities for students to spend time learning from and with professors they have not been able to fit in their schedules. Thus we could see the growth of ties across departments and between students and faculty of varying interests and perspectives. These club convos will also provide an opportunity for those students who were not able to take Great Books but who desire a discussion-based environment to sort out spiritual or intellectual issues.
When teachers are involved in convo students see that the professors they respect are concerned with their spiritual growth.