Thumbprints at TWU September 1, 2006
Posted by mwj as politics, twu. trackback.It’s been too long, but I’m back, and I’m ready to put my fingerprints all over this clay that we call Trinity Western University.
There’s a new president here, and a new style of leadership. No longer are we Wayside School, a horribly flawed architectural project one story wide and a hundred stories high. Jonathan Raymond has come to flatten this institution and give back power to the people who make this place run.
Those people are the staff that break their backs cleaning up after students. Those people are the professors who take a 50% cut in their paycheck and choose students over the lofty towers of academia. And those people are the students themselves who pay more than they should for their education, taking loans and working part-time jobs for an education they have to keep convincing themselves is worth it.
We’ve lived for decades under a culture of fear, a culture of silence and oppression. People at this school have forgotten how to raise their voices and stand up for what they believe in. We’ve lost sight of Christian education that pushes the bounds of acceptability and seeks for a new way to engage culture and the mind.
Raymond will have none of this sort of attitude. He is focused on the future, and believes that Trinity will be on part with the great schools of Canada, like McGill, Queens, and Waterloo. He is also convinced that the only way to get there is to work together and actually listen to students, staff and faculty.
Make no mistake, Raymond’s doctrine of allowing everyone to get their hands dirty with the task of shaping this school runs <i>exactly opposite</i> to this university’s leadership for the past decade and a half, at least. It was this tyranny that led the faculty to revolt seventeen years ago. And it was this tyranny that turned this school into a warzone, with each faction battling it out for every cent they could get. But all of this has changed, the horizons are wide open, and it’s time to get things right.
I’m looking forward to a good year.
Comments»
It is sure to be an important year. The only thing that bothers me is that he said he is only going to stay around 5 years….is this true?
Has anyone yet titled an article “Everybody loves Raymond” ?
http://www.marshillonline.com/everybody-loves-raymond