On January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet, “Common Sense,” a flat-footed treatment of some serious interpretive issues regarding British colonial rule. It could be said that it has come time for Pepperdine to take similar considerations of the conceptual underpinnings behind the Convocation program. Now, I do not claim to have the philosophical prowess nor the magnanimous diplomacy to adequately address an issue of this grandeur, but let’s give it a try.
The Pepperdine Convocation website states that “each semester, all undergraduates are required to attend 14 programs in the Convocation Series, which are activities aimed at building Christian faith, affirming Christian values, or addressing ethical and moral issues within a Christian worldview posed by current events.” Let me clarify that my aim is in no way to disparage or undermine the convocation program. Rather, for the purpose of discussion and reflection, I would like to simply bring to the forefront a few everyday, hypothetical scenarios that seem highly plausible given the continuation of the current convocation program.
Imagine a brisk Tuesday evening in the Malibu fall. You’re drudging through class as per the norm, but alas, an anxiety springs to the stem of your brain — “It’s Tuesday, and I need Convo credit.” Quickly, you text a friend because you’re in class till 5:50 p.m. and incidentally, said convo event starts at 6 p.m.. “No problem,” you think to yourself, “I’ll rush right there … maybe even time for a Jamba.” But no! You remember mere corporeal presence is now insufficient for entry into convocation events! No, sir, you must now obtain the prized, variously-colored raffle ticket, the gilded key that opens the glorious doors of having a blue-shirted man or woman scan your plastic identification card into a system verifying your intent to convoke.
Or consider an independent scenario: You are prompt and a go-getter. You do not dilly-dally, and within five weeks of the semester, you have already merited your beloved “A” in convocation. Now … what to do? Time to turn your Eagle Scout training into some cold hard cash. There are 10 weeks left in the semester and over 120 convocations to embezzle — you’ve entered the convocation black market. In homage to Jason Bourne, you take on different identities and disguises, retrieving blue and red raffle tickets like a despaired squirrel gathering nuts in anticipation of a Minnesota winter. Next step — you show up 10-20 minutes before each convo, clad in trench coat, ready to deal. Thrown from the side of your mouth, you murmur of cheap tickets and no wait. As the year draws to an end, demand goes up and your profits follow. You are a parasite, the remora feeding off the bureaucratic convocation shark.
Take it up a notch — you are no longer the only ticket dealer on the scene. Certain personalities have risen to the top — ticket lords, as we will then know them. They run highly sophisticated operations, distributing contraband tickets to the laypersons of the community. Ticket prices continue to sky-rocket, and the inflation has begun to dip the economic landscape of desperate Pepperdine students, struggling to make ends meet and willing to do almost anything to cement their spot in the Stauffer pew. Soon, chaos ensues. The number of convocation events attended becomes the stratifying variable in the Pepperdine structure, creating class warfare of sorts. Students begin looting Nature’s Edge and staging sit-ins in the HAWC. Greeks no longer recognize Greeks and GDI’s have resorted to lawlessness. The cafeteria workers escape and Benton flees to his secret bunker in the Santa Monica Mountains. The citizens of Pepperdine demand REVOLUTION!
Perhaps I have slightly strayed from the intended trajectory. As I qualified, this is purely conjecture and only lays out an imaginative anecdote of what could arise if the convocation program remains unchanged. Convocation is the coming together of a group of people for a special purpose. Have we not then been, at least in some sense, driven to holding convocation against the system of convocation? Do we come together as a student body to affirm Christian values and enlighten our understanding of ethical and spiritual truths? Or do we begrudgingly coexist in the same facility for an arbitrary amount of time to tacitly absorb the genuine and sincere attempts of people who desire to communicate some particular message?
Perhaps, if nothing else, we can take a moment to understand and evaluate our motivations for what was intended to be a spiritual and communal resource and yet no longer appears to be decidedly so.
